THE FOLKLORE OF NORTHEASTERN ASIA, AS COMPARED ...

American Anthropologist NEW SERIES

VOL. 4 OCTOBER-DECEMBER, 1902 No. 4

T H E FOLKLORE OF NORTHEASTERN ASIA, AS COMPARED W I T H T H A T OF NORTHWEST-

ERN AMERICA

BY WALDEMAR BOGORAS (Published under the auspices of the New York Academy of Sc.iences)

INTRODUCTION

The material for the following remarks has been drawn from about five hundred tales collected among the tribes of northeastern Siberia. The chief part of them belongs to the Reindeer and Maritime Chukchee, a hundred and sixty-eight of which were published by the Imperial Academy of Sciences in St Petersburg ' ; others are derived from the Kamchadale, Koryak, Kerek, Lamut, Russianized Yukaghir of the Kolyma, Chuvantzy, Russianized natives of the Anadyr, and Asiatic Eskimo.' The greater part of

1 Materials for the Stu<q of the Chukchee Language and FoZklore, collected in the Kolyma District. St Petersburg, 1900.

9 All tales the provenience of which is not indicated belong to the Chukchee ; in the case of the others the tribe is indicated. All the Asiatic tribes above mentioned are called West Bering tribes, in distinction from the East Bering Eskimo and In- dian tribes of the American shore.

In the transcription of native names, besides the characters usually employed for this purpose, I is used to designate the sound of the English ch; 4 and are velar sounds ; i has a slight dental sound preceding it.

AM. ANTH. N. S., 4-37. 577

5 78 A M E RIG A N ANTHROPOLOGIST [N. S., 4, 1902

the Chukchee and some of the Yukaghir tales were recorded on my first expedition to northeastern Siberia ; vthile all the rest were collected on an expedition which formed part of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition of the American Museum of Natural History in New York. The Koryak material is deficient, however, and we may expect much more to be brought out by Mr Waldemar Jochelson, who studied this tribe for the Jesup North Pacific Expedition.

The Kamchadale material, though the most important, is very scanty. The Kamchadale have forgotten almost all of their old traditions, and consider even the very name of Kutq shameful, and unbecoming to good Christians.

On the contrary, the material collected among the Russianized natives in the Kolyma on my first expedition, and later on in Anadyr and even in Kamchatka, is very remarkable, and includes some of the most curious tales and some of the oldest versions of other well-known tales. Although these people have lost their language, they obstinately cling to the remnants of their old traditions, blending them often with Russian elements, but more often keeping them in the unmutilated condition that they had before the coming of the Russians. These Russianized natives, moreover, have rescued from oblivion a large body of old Russian folklore, songs, tales, and epics, long ago forgotten by their neighbors of Russian blood; and so, in some very remote corner of that remote region, one may sometimes hear from the lips of a full-blooded Yukaghir or Yakut an epic song composed on the shores of the Dnieper in South Russia hundreds of years ago. All the sounds and words are preserved almost without distortion, though the meaning of the sentences remains quite obscure to the simple fisherman, who has never in his life seen a single rye-ear or fruit-tree, a town or village of more than thirty houses, kings or glorious knights on goodly horses with glistening armor, of all of which the old epics continually treat in detail.

BOGORAS] T H E FOLKLORE OF NOKTHEASTERN A S f A 5 79

I.-GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE FOLKLORE

General Characteristics a i d A8nities.-The mythology and folklore of northeastern Asia are essentially different from the Uralo-Altaic mythology, and point to a group of conceptions and a mode of expression which have little relationship to those of the interior of Siberia; on the contrary, they possess affinities east- ward along the shores of Bering sea to the northwestern part of America. The differences of both mythological cycles are so distinct and important that one may almost assume that, from an ethnographical point of view, the line dividing Asia and America lies far southwestward of Bering strait, extending from the lower part of Kolyma river to Gishiga bay. In the whole country east of this line, American ideas, or, more properly speaking, ideas characteristic of the North Pacific coast of America, prevail.

The demons and the creatures of fancy in general have com- pletely different forms. Instead of one-eyed and one-legged spirits, breathing forth fire, riding on six-legged, four-winged iron steeds, and wrestling with similarly mounted knights clad in metal or altogether metallic, there appear monsters of maritime origin, -" sea were-wolves " (i%~pMKn), which in summer swim about in the shape of killer-whales, but in winter come ashore and transform themselves into wolves ; giant polar bears (Ra?dtko) with huge paws, and bodies of solid ivory; shaman-whales; salmon-men ; giant islanders ; cannibal spirits from across the sea; etc.

Skin boats, vying in swiftness with the flight of the birds; self-moving canoes covered with lids, like snuff-boxes ; adven- turers traveling along distant shores and among the islands, and meeting with strange and unseemly peoples,-a tribe of shadows that live in a forest, men split in halves, dwarfs, polar bears with human faces,-all these are motives frequently occurring even in the tales of the Reindeer tribes, especially among the Chukchee, with whom extensive reindeer-breeding is of comparatively recent date, and who, even up to the time of the advent of the Russians,

580 AMERlCAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [N. s., 4, 1902

were a half-maritime tribe, with few reindeer herds, living largely on sea meat (alzqdtd). There are reasons for assuming that in former times this mode of life prevailed among all small Rein- deer bands along the Pacific coast, from northern Kamchatka t o East cape. The general character of these tales of northeastern Asia, the descriptions of heroes and the expression of their feel- ings, closely resemble the tales of northwestern America, partly, no doubt, because of similar surroundings, and partly because of a similar degree of culture, which was attained by all Bering Sea tribes, including the whaling and seal-hunting Eskimo and the Maritime Chukchee, the fishing Indian of the North Pacific and the Kamchadale, the reindeer-breeding Koryak and Chuk- chee, and even the poorest of all-the starving and vanishing Yukaghir. The tales of these rude and primitive people cannot be so rich in epithets and so elaborate in description as are generally the productions of the Mongol or the Yakut, among whom society is more complex, owing to their pastoral mode of life, their larger social units, and more developed class distinctions. Northern folklore, sprung from a simpler mode of life, deals in plain words and progresses directly to its purpose, sometimes giving to the narrative a very vivid and realistic character.

The second striking feature of the folklore of both shores of Bering sea and of the adjoining parts of the Northwest coast of America are the numerous lewd and ribald stories, sometimes independent, sometimes episodes of longer stories, often without any apparent coherence with these. I t i s truly remarkable that even in this class of stories similar ones are quite frequently found on the east and the west coasts of Bering sea. On account of their very incongruity they arrest the attention and suggest a

common source: and as we go farther to the south, along the Pacific coast of Asia, the folklore of the Ainu, with its simple method of description, its numerous animal stories and obscene episodes, must be classed within the same group of ideas.

Before taking up a comparison of Asiatic and American folk-

BOGORAS] THE FOLKLORE OF NORTZZEASTERN ASIA 581

lore in detail, I shall try t o give a sketch of Chukchee folklore, which is most fully represented in my collection. As t o the stories of other tribes, though often even more important than those of the Chukchee, they are too disconnected to be treated in a similar way; but their proper significance will be pointed out in the further exposition of the subject.

There is very little difference between the tales of the Rein- deer and the Maritime Chukchee, or between those of the Arctic and Pacific branches, since there is a lively intercourse between all sections of the Chukchee tribe.

Chukchee story-tellers usually class their stories in three distinct groups, as lollows:

I. " Tidings from the time of first creation " (tut-tdmwa-tdgnz- K h f P i Z f Z t e " ) . To this term is often added "and still before that " (pdn&a-asttduZ). Here belong-

(a) Cosmogonic tales about the creation of the world, the sun, the moon, the stars, man, reindeer, the multiplying of the human race, etc.

(b) Miscellaneous information about the number of worlds, the character of deities, constellations, etc. [gathered outside the limits of the stories proper, from several persons].

2. Genuine tales ( Z Z ~ - Z z Y m Z ~ Z t t ) . These comprise various stories about the relations between human creatures and supernatural beings called k&t (plural of k&ZE) ; stories about the adventures of shamans ; various other tales, some containing very realistic descriptioos of every-day life, without any trace of the imagina- tive element. Animal tales and fables are usually classed with this group, though many of them have separate names, uniformly derived from the animal of which they are treating; for instance, " raven tale " (od/va- / z~ 'm~~?/d) , '' hare tale " (m$Zdta-ZzZzi'mFi/Z), etc.

3. " Hostile tidings " (n%$~Zdtkin pckZt."), comprising stories of 'wars with various neighboring tribes, chiefly with TdnHt and Aivdnat.

Tdn7izt is the common name for the reindeer Koryak, Chu-

582 A MERlCA N A N T H K O P O L O G I S T [N. s., 4, 1902

vantzy, and Russians. More strictly speaking, the reindeer Koryak are called LS-tdnE~t (L' Genuine TdMzt ") ; the Chuvantzy, Atal- tdnWzt; and the Russians, M&'Zii~-taM~t (" Fire-tool Tdniift ") or Mt'lhrs-t-tdliW (L' Fire-lock TdfiZilt "). The origin of the word t d n m is unknown, but it is curious that the Koryak use it in just the same combinations for the Reindeer Chukchee, qhuvantzy, and Russians.

Aivdnat signifies " Eskimo," both Asiatic and American, though the Reindeer Chukchee often designate by this name any maritime people who have no herds and live on seals.

The reason for the distinctions between these groups of tales is founded on the belief that they happened in different periods. The first group is considered to be anterior t o all others, and to have come " from the limit (of the time) of the first creation" (tot-tdmwa-tdgt@g). The second group comes " from the limits of story-time " ilzZ'rnd~Z-tdgn8pu). The third group comes " from the limit of the quarreling-time " (a~qalzldt-tu?gn8pu), which is considered to be quite recent.

Supernatural Beings.- By the name RdlE the Chukchee designate three different classes of beings more or less akin to each other. The first class are evil spirits who walk invisibly along the earth, producing diseases and preying on the human soul and body. These spirits are always described as a tribe of beings living very much like tribes of men: they reside in villages or camps, travel with reindeer and dogs, marry, have children, need food, and obtain it by hunting man with harpoons and nets. Human souls are like fish or seals to them. They are very dangerous, but at the same time are not immune from attack by mortal shamans, who can kill them just as easily as they kill men. They usually come from the confines of the land occupied by the Chukchee. For instance, the KPZet of various diseases come mostly from the west, out of the country of the Big Sun-chief,'

The Chukchee, like many other native tribes of Siberia, designate by this name the Russian Emperor.

BOGORAS] THE FOLKLORE OF NORTHEASTERN ASIA 583

or from a world of their own above or below our earth. I n stories from the Pacific coast these Kt'let are often called rt'KKel;i, but in inland and Arctic tales the r/Khel;i are bear-monsters attached to the entrance of a man-eating KdZE's house. They have very large ears, so that they can readily hear the slightest noise, and will catch even a mosquito if it attempts t o enter unawares.

The second class of M e t are earthly tribes hostile t o the Chukchee, and more or less fabulous. Some of them lived in Chukchee-land in ancient times; others still live on distant shores. Ail these Kdlet live by seal-hunting, are always poor and hungry, have no reindeer-sledges, and for the most part even no dog- sledges, but only a single dog for hunting purposes. In one tale it is mentioned that the k d h had to fetch wood, pulling the sledge himself. It is easy t o see that there is no strict dividing-line between these two classes of kdlet. One tale even relates how Chukchee warriors fought with the maritime Kt'E tribe ; and how the latter, after several defeats, were forced to leave the shore and henceforth became invisible.

The third class of Kdet are the spirits that come a t the call of the shamans and help them in their magical proceedings. They come singly, though they also live in tribes and villages. They are mostly material objects - animals, such as wolves, reindeer, walrus, whales ; plants, icebergs, winds ; and even household utensils, as pots, hammers, needle-cases and needles,-and even the chamber-pot and excrement. They closely resemble some of the inzla or owizers of the Eskimo. These &/let are often called " separate spirits " ( y d n h k d l a t ) , because they talk, when obeying a call, with separate voices (of a ventriloquistic kind).

I n the cosmogonical statements of the Chukchee shamans,- so-called eiiPHZfne Zdso (" things seen by a shaman "),-this sort of kdlet is characterized in the following manner:

In the steep bank of a river there lives a man. A voice is there, and speaks aloud. I saw the '' master of the voice," and spoke with him.

They are all, moreover, cannibals.

5 84 AMERICAN ANTHHOPOLOGIST [N. s., 4, 1902

H e subjected himself to me and sacrificed to me. He came yester- day and answered my questions. The small gray bird with the blue breast sings shaman-songs in the hollow of the bough, calls the spirits, and practises shamanism. The woodpecker strikes his drum on the tree with his drumming nose. Under the axe the tree trembles and wails like a drum under the beating-stick.

The walls of the house have voices of their own. Even the chamber-pot has a separate land and house. The antlers lying on the tombs arise at night and walk in procession around the mound, while the deceased rise and visit the living.'

I n another statement of a similar kind t h e small bird is practising in the hollow of the bough on a drum of grass. His sacrifice is small beetles or worms, t h e best of his food. But t h e thieving raven, alighting on t h e t o p of t h e tree, listens to his songs and takes possession of them by drawing them in with his breath.

T h e same shaman from whom I obtained this statement told m e of t h e first class of ke'let : " We are surrounded b y enemies -spirits always walking about with gaping mouths. W e are always cringing, distributing gifts on all sides, asking protection of one, giving ransom to another, and unable to obtain anything whatsoever gratuitously."

Several tales give detailed descriptions of the relations between human beings and t h e disease-bringing kdlei. I will cite one instance :

Two shamans, Tefikukdfie and R O ~ O W ~ L E , lived in a village which was once visited by re2kRrti people, who came to kill the inhabitants.' One evening the mortals laughed among themselves. Now, the two were powerful shamans, especially Rogowhz. He listened in the dark, and said : " Don't laugh any moie. Strange ears are listening to you. H e departed, and found the camp of the r/k&eA. They were pitching their tents close by. Then he returned to Tefikukbfie. The people meanwhile laughed on, RogowaLE called Tefikukfifie by name. The latter asked : " Halloo !

All these come at my call. All that exists, lives. The lamp walks around.

The skins sleeping in the bags talk at night.

Well, I shall go and see who it is."

Chukchee Materials, p. 375. See page 583.

UOGORAS] Z H E FOLKLOL’E OI;’ NORTHEAS7*ERN ASIA 585

What is the matter ? )’ “ Do you know what is going to happen ? ”- ‘‘ What ? *’- “ Ho ! They want to kill us ! ” Teiikukhiie went out too, and RogowALE said : “ Let us go and visit them.” They put on their shaman dresses and went to the hostile camp. They stopped in front of him, but he could not see them. After a while the old man said : “ Make haste with the tents. We want to go for food in that direction.” Again the old man said : “Where are the young men ? Halloo, there ! Bring me my divining-stone!’’ But what they really brought him was a human skull. He began to swing it, two shamans watching him all the time. “ T h e food is close by. Mean- while he tried to move the skull with his staff, but it remained motionless. “ Ho ! What is the matter with the skull ? Why does it not s t i r? What is the trouble, that we cannot learn anything about our food ? ” RogowLLE raised his stick at the old man, who said : “ Oh ! It hurts me ! ” though RogowiLE did not strike him. I n a moment the old man was nearly dead.’ The two shamans talked to each other. “ L e t us exterminate them ! ” One of them, before leaving home, had promised his protecting spirit his best dog ; the other had forgotten to make a promise. They began to strike with their sticks at the dkLwZ people. The latter, in great disorder, fled in every direction, and were quite de- fenceless, because man and spirit are equally dangerous to each other. Even the ground softened under their trampling feet, and the rdkke6 fled underground. The shamans, too, nearly disappeared in the earth ; and TefikukGfie, who had omitted the promise of a gift, stuck there up to his middle as if solidly frozen to the ground, nor could he by any means extricate himself. “ Why can’t you move?” asked his corn- panion. Probably you went off without making a promise.”- “ Oh, I forgot it ! ” gasped TeAkukilfie. - “ H m ! Try an incantation.”- “ I cannot.” - “ Try again, and call to your guardian spirit.” Still he was unable to do so. H e said : “Look here ! Will you help m e ? I shall reward you.” - “Well, tell me your offer beforehand.”- “ I will give you a double garment, a line of ground-seal skin, and a white dog.” Then Rogowhm began his incantations, and in a few moments there came a herd of walrus, diving under the frozen earth as they would under water. “ They are coming to you ! ” said Rogow&I.E. “ Try and see if you can move your limbs a little.” The walruses popped out close at hand, snorting and bellowing. Then they plunged under him again, and with a sudden jerk he succeeded in reaching the surface.

After a long while the re‘kkeTi people came back to the village to seek

RO~OWLLE retorted :

An old k k h shaman was there, reclining on a sledge.

The two stood still and listened.

Let the people go in search of it.”

“Are you not a shaman?

How very strange !

5 86 A MERLCAN A N THROPOLOGZS T [N. S., 4, I902

revenge. They cautiously crept up to it at midnight, and, putting their nets across the entrance of the tent, began to poke with long poles under the tent-skirts, intending to drive out the little souls of the sleeping men from the protecting cover of the inner room. The people were saved through the watchfulness of a certain peculiar dog received from other spirits as % special gift [in another version as a ransom].

In another tale of similar content the r&keE try to enter a house in the dark: but the owner, warned in time by a human skeleton from near by, draws a circular line around his house with reindeer blood. In due time the re'kkea come, finding a river of blood encompassing the house. They search for a ford, but cannot reach ground anywhere, even with their long staffs. Finally they desist from their purpose and leave.

In still another tale two Met , trying to attack a human village, are called by the names of diseases,-Cough (Tiggi) and Rheum (Pit?). They are caught by the villagers and severely punished. When caught by men, kdet often accuse certain shamans and revengeful people of having sent them. The names of other disease-Met are Colic (&grip) ; Nightmare (I&metun), who is said to have a black face and to strangle men a t night, drinking the blood from their throats; Epilepsy (I t4un), who lives underground, and strikes men sleeping alone in the tundra ; Syphilis (&el), small red people moving around with small red reindeer-herds and hiding in cloudberry fruits. When coming to human villages they make their camps on human bodies.

All kinds of M e t are believed to be small,-not larger than a finger, - though when appearing to us, they assume any size they please. Several shamans have told me that the size of the KPZet is very puzzling. They are so changeable that, when seen a t the same time by several men, they will appear t o them of different sizes. Animals when assuming human form also change their sizes. The ermine, for instance, becomes a stately warrior clad in white fur; and the owl, also a warrior. The legs of mice which they have killed become large reindeer hams.

. .


T h e stories about the kPlE tribes living in distant fabulous countries will be referred to later on , in comparison with similar Eskimo tales.

Besides the Kdet, several other monsters are met with in Chukchee tales. I have mentioned the sea were-wolves, the giant polar bear (kotdiko) with ivory body, the long-eared rPkkeR. Another polar bear, the " hairless polar bear " (mzrg.u'mk/), has very thin hair. I t is a man-eater, and o n stormy nights imitates the cries of a distressed traveler, luring people to come to his help, then devouring them. Kelilhu is a very large red wolf with long tail and gaping mouth. Its jaws open so wide that it is obliged to shut them with its paws. T h e general character of all these monsters is much like that of similar Eskimo monsters, though the details are different.

The benevolent spirits are called vdzrgzn ( A being "), from the verb tlt-vdrkzn (" I exist," " I am "). T h e conception of these is rather indefinite. Usually sun, dawn, and sunrise are considered as vdlrgzt; but darkness and twilight are kdet. Several stars and constellations are also v d ~ ~ g - ~ t . Such are the polar star (aslk@-e7iCr, " nail star ") ; Arcturus and Vrga (Zkutti, " heads "), who are considered to be brothers or cousins; the zenith (gJndn-kandTL, " middle crown ") ; etc. T o this class of beings also belong the very indefinite Compassionate Being (ydi- va2u-vdcrgzn), the World (Edrgzn&n, '( the outer one "), the Creator (thantdmg zE), e tc.

Sometimes these beings are also loosely called M e t , but the punctilious speaker always makes a distinction. Thus, for instance, sacrifices t o the kdlet mean either ransom, or bribes t o induce them to harm other mortals ; while sacrifices t o vdzygzt signify either gratitude, or presents in order to receive some boon or luck in earthly pursuits.

T h e k / E are called by the Koryak kdla, kdlnk, or kdmak (the last is sometimes used also by Chukchee). Another Koryak name for KE'ZE is &vm?tti2l?ln, although, under the influence of the

588 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST IN. s.. 4, xgoz

Raven myth, this being has acquired a ludicrous character. The benevolent spirits, va'zrgrt, of the Chukchee are called vahz'y7;?~t by the Koryak.

The Yukaghir have no name for the kPh, calling him simply "the fabulous old man,"-evidently a reminiscence of the second class of KPZet. I n the same manner the Asiatic Eskimo use the word tdrnzrak for all classes of KE'/et, while they call the va'zrgzn Kzydparak (from KZya'Tnakuffa, " I exist," '' I am ").

Among the American Eskimo the first class of KPZet are called tornait (singular, tornaq), and the second class tornit (singular, tuneq), but the difference between them is greater than that between cdrresponding classes of KPZet.

I n Asia, the idea corresponding to the Eskimo inua, as owners of places, was developed chiefly among the Yukaghir.' According to their belief, each lake, river, and forest has its special master who disposes of all animals living in it. These masters live much in the same way as mortals ; they build houses, marry, die, and even hold ceremonies and bring sacrifices. They are greatly fond of card-playing, and one master will often win from another a large part of his animals, which have to go over t o his estate. The Chukchee call such masters k"tln (" master ") or aunra'hn (" first in house "), and occasionally make small sacrifices to them ; but in the tales their names appear but seldom, and for the greater part are replaced by the word kP&.

The Soul.-Many tales of shamans relate to the restoration of the souls of the dead. According to Chukchee belief, man has several souls (uvirit). Besides those pertaining to the whole body, there are special limb-souls for hands and feet. Occasion- ally these latter may be lost. Then the corresponding limb begins to ache, but the limb-souls stay on the spot where they were lost. A shaman, however, can call them to himself, and they become his ydn$a-kdZut. I have a Chukchee drawing in which these limb-souls are represented as flying from the

' See also p. 583.


open country to the house of the shaman who summoned them.

One or all of the souls of the whole person may be stolen b y the k d E ; then the man becomes sick and sometimes dies. T h e shaman can find and restore the missing souls ; if he fail in this, he can blow into the person a part of his breath to become a soul, or he may give him one of his servant-Met to replace the missing soul. When passing by they produce a sound like the humming of a bee or the drumming of a beetle.

The shamans are able to work various spells, by word of mouth or by means of objects. They also create special charms (d iwe l ) and send them to persons “subject to anger” (driE&m- Z y o t ) ; i. e., destined to incur the anger of shamans. T h e charms may assume various shapes, and even change their form, at the will of the sender. They appear as inanimate objects, animals, or men. When caught and disarmed they will serve their captor, or, if repulsed, will come back of their own accord and strike their sender.

The same thing happens in case the shaman’s k d h is sent to harm an enemy, but it is disarmed on the road by another more powerful shaman.

Shamans working spells and charms, or performing any acts obnoxious t o other people, are called “trifling shamans” (Zhlew- effdZ~ZIt), or “ evil-omened shamans ” (Ku’rgu ~ E d E l l ~ t ) .

A shamanistic spell may be made harmless by the use of fresh birth-water of a woman or of a she-dog. The whole power of a shaman may be destroyed by it. For that reason women of child-bearing age rarely possess great shamanistic powers. Very old women, however, have special skill in handling charms. They are called “ charm little old women ”- diwel-~n$&2wq&, which might be translated “witches.”

The World.-I shall refer t o the creation myth farther on and compare it with the genesis myth of the North Pacific Indians.

The souls are very small.

590 A MERZCA N AN THROPOL 0 GIs T [N. S., 4. IgOZ

The Chukchee believe that there are nine worlds, one above the other, so that the upper side of the sky of one forms the ground of the next one. Some of them lie above the earth, others beneath it, and they are alternately peopled by men and by Kdlet. The lowest world is inhabited by those who have died twice, and therefore cannot return to the earth. Besides these, there exist several worlds beyond the limits of the earth ; for instance, those in the directions of the compass, the world under water, one small dark world possessed by ‘ I the bird-she-devil ” (gdZha-Aaw-KdZE), etc. These worlds are not very large, since shamans may easily travel over several worlds and come back in the same night. I n one tale, however, a shaman who wanted to reach the sky is said to have gone upward. After many years of traveling he met a gray-haired shaman who explained that when still a young man he started on the same enterprise, but that he was coming back without having reached his goal. I collected this tale on Omolon river, where the Reindeer Chukchee live side by side with the Lamut, and perhaps it is borrowed from the latter. In genuine Chukchee tales we hear that a man, hurled forward by the force of an incantation, dashes onward through several worlds at once, pierces one head-foremost, another feet- foremost, and alights on the ground of clouds in the third or the fourth. Each world has a hole in the zenith of the sky, right under the base of the polar star; and the shamans slip through this hole while going from one world to another. The heroes of several tales fly up through this hole, riding an eagle or a thunder- bird. Through this hole the people of the upper world may look down upon the lower one.

The inhabitants of the upper world are called “ Upper people” (Gzrgdr-rdntkzn) or Dawn people ” ( TtidIrgz-rdmkrn), since the easiest way to reach them is simply to waik toward the dawn, where the gradual rise of the road leads to the sky.

In one tale a young man leaves his uncle’s house, where he is not given enough to eat, and walks to the upper land, where he

. .

BOGORAS] THE FOLKLORE OF NORTHEASTERN ASZA 591

is kindly received and treated to the best of everything. After a while his host offers to get him a bride. The youth assents; his host opens a hole in the ground by pulling out the stopper, and the lower world is in full view. Five girls play ball near a lake. The host begins to angle for one of them with a sharp fish-hook, succeeds in catching her by the navel, and drags her up ; but he has caught only her soul: the body is left down below, and her companions wail because of her sudden death.'

I n another tale a woman is shown the lower world through a hole in the ground of the upper one. She feels a yearning for i t and drops a tear. The women below are busy scraping skins. They think it is raining, and hasten into their houses.'

I n still another tale the Dawn, commonly the mightiest among the " upper beings," has in his house many such holes, through which he can examine in turn different parts of the lower world.

In some of these tales the supreme being in the upper world, the Dawn, Creator, Polar-star Spirit, or whoever he may be, lets down by means of a strong rope the human visitor and his wife, after supplying them with provisions. Sometimes his rope is only a spider's thread, but is capable of sustaining twenty reindeer- loads without snapping.8

The upper world can be reached also along the path of the rainbow by means of the smoke from a luneral pyre. In one tale a shaman, every time he wants to visit the upper world, is killed and burned on the pyre, and then ascends with the smoke. He comes down again in a whirlwind, and the reindeer of his sleigh must be caught by the occupants of his house when rushing by, otherwise he will pass and never return.

In the story of KdniflE, the hero and his companions descend to another world through a whirlpool.' I n another tale two

Chukchee Materials, p. 184. Ibid., p. 183. Compare Boas, ZndianiscAe Sngen, p. 40. Chukcher Materials, p. 312.

592 A MERZCA N A N THROPOLOGZST [N. s., 4, 1902

wandering brothers descend to the bottom of the sea, to a world under water, and then ascend to a separate world which is supported on a long needle.’

He drives around the sky with dogs or reindeer. H e descends along one of his own rays and carries away a young woman. Then he brings down a herd of white reindeer, and in their stead takes up from below a herd of brown and gray reindeer, which are considered to have originated on earth or underground.

The moon is a man too, but t o a certain extent he takes a position in contrast to that of the sun. H e is called the sun of the KPZE, and the suns of some of the lower worlds are quite similar to our moon. Shamans apply to the moon for evil spells and incantations. Notwithstanding his great powers, his attempt to ravish a mortal girl proved unsuccessful. She even succeeded in pinioning his hands, and released him only on his urgent entreaties.

The well-known story of the moon carrying away a young boy or a girl who had been badly treated in his or her earthly life, and who is now visible on the moon, occurs also.

A person who looks at the moon, especially when it is full, may be bereft of his wits or carried away altogether.

The polar star is sometimes called “pole-stuck star” (unp- &er’). This name occurs throughout northern Asia. I t suggests a simile, wherein all other stars move around the polar star as horses (or reindeer) tethered to a motionless pole. The polar star and the two “ heads ” (Arcturus and Vega) are considered as chiefs of the stars (do;).

Orion is an archer called RuZtP?ilnin, aiming with his bow at a ‘‘ group of women ” (Pleiades), each of whom refused to marry him on account of the size of his membrum virile, which is represented by two stars extending downward. H e had another wife

The sun is believed to be a man clad in bright garments.

Chukchee Materials, p. 235. See page 587.


(Leo), but they quarreled, and she struck him with her tailoring- board, causing his back to become crooked ; therefore he cast off the woman, who, being tired, fell asleep in the middle of the sky, her head resting on her right sleeve. Aldebaran is an arrow of RuCtPnnin, stuck on a mossy bog, represented by numerous small stars. The Milky Way is a river with sandy banks and many islands ; in the middle stand five wild reindeer bucks (Cassiopeia). Ursa Major represents six warriors fighting with slings, the seventh double star being a gray fox gnawing a pair of reindeer-antlers. Corona borealis is a polar-bear’s paw. Shooting stars are said to be stars that go coasting down hill on sleds. Comets are called “ smoking stars,” the smoke indicating that much cooking is being done where they are. Planets are called “crooked-way stars,” because of their irregular paths.’ Most of the constellations mentioned have the same names and similar explanations among the Koryak.

Dawn and Twilight play an important part in ceremonials and sacrifices. The two are said to live in marriage with a single woman stolen from the earth. In one tale an earthly shaman wants this woman for himself, and ascends to their dwelling. He creates a girl out of snow and grass, and pretends that she is his sister. The snow girl is given in exchange for the wife of the hosts, but in the morning they find that she has dissolved. Then a shamanistic contest begins. Among various feats, the rivals have to run along a thin pole over a boiling river. The earthly shaman does not wait for his turn, but starts from the opposite end at the same time as the other competitors. When he meets them, he jumps over their heads and runs on. Then they have to leap over a chasm, which is stuck all along with knives, and the earthly shaman performs the feat backwards. Then a huge kettle filled with boiling water is placed by the side of a larch- tree. A th in pole with a sharp end protrudes from the water.

’ Regarding the Aurora borealis, see p . 634. AM. ANTH., N. s., 4-38.

594 AMERICAN ANTHXOPOLOGlST [N. S., 4, 1902

The competitors have to catch the end of a rope which hangs from the larch-tree ; then they must jump into the kettle, alight on the end of the pole, and land safely on the ground, etc. T h e earthly shaman overpowers his supernatural competitors, robs them of the woman, and finally kills them.'

In another tale a shaman named AttfgItkI went with his cousin to the sea. I n the open they saw asmal l old man sitting on the water with legs crossed and covering the entrance to the world under water. By promising to give him, on their return home, a n old blind she-dog, gray with age, they were permitted to enter. Descending to the world under water, they walked along and found still another world supported in the air on the end of a long needle. They turned into mosquitoes, flew upward, and slipped through the needle's eye into this world ; then they became men again. The owner of this world was the Earth (Ndtenut). H e sits in a large iron house surrounded by Sun, Moon, Sky, Sea, Dawn, Darkness, World, who are the suitors of his beautiful daughter. Their hands are covered with scars, because at every meal, when the tray with the meat is carried in, the master strikes with a long knife a t every hand that reaches out for the food. Being powerful shamans, however, the guests immediately heal their wounds by breathing on them. AttfgItkI sits down by himself, puts his cap on his lap, and draws in his breath. Plenty of meat jumps over into the cap, and Ndtenut has no occasion to interfere.

A large tree-trunk stands up in the middle of the sea. As soon as a suitor climbs it and begins to cut its branches with an axe, the spirit that lives in the tree-trunk shakes it, and the wood-cutter falls down and is drowned. The suitors, being shamans, rise again and come back to the shore. AttfgItkI and his cousin bring a quantity of food and drop it on the tree-trunk. While the spirit is busy eating the food, they succeed in cutting off a

After the meal the suitors are sent t o fetch fuel.

ChuRchee Materials, p. 227.

BOGORAS] THE FOLKLORE: O F NORTHEASTERN ASZA 595

piece of wood as large as a house. After a while a shamanistic contest begins i n the sleeping-room. The lights are extinguished. S u n brings his luminary and scorches the people. Sea brings the flood and drowns everything. Moon brings the “shut t ing rocks,” and crushes the competitors. Dawn brings two polar bears, which eat everybody. Darkness brings two black bears, which do the same. Sky makes its upper hard crust fall down and crushes the people. World brings a snow-tempest and freezes them. After each performance all t he rival shamans come to life again. The two men remain unhurt, because they turn now into red worms, then into ermines or into wagtails. He lifts his staff and touches the competitors one by one. One-half of the body of each is burned, shrunken, or weakened. They fly away terrified, and AttfgItki carries off the bride.’

T h e Chukchee ideas of the position of the worlds in respect to one another, also of the human souls carried away by M e t and then restored by shamans, are presented with curious details in the story of “ T h e Scabby Shaman,” which I give in extenso :

FinalIy AttfgItkI, in his turn, begins to perform.

There lived in the midland country a mighty shaman, MekmgIn by name, rich in reindeer. He had eighty houses, all well filled with people, and eight large herds. His reindeer were like fallen boughs in a forest. His only son, Rfntew, suddenly died. MeCmgIn sought for him throughout the whole earth, searched all worlds, and‘could not find him. In great sorrow he sat down in his sleeping-room and ceased to practise his art, not wanting to go out. His son’s body lay before him on a skin. Three years it lay there. All the flesh had decayed and fallen off, because three years had passed by. The joints had become loosened, and the intestines had fallen out upon the skin and mingled with the decayed hair. At last the father arose, called two of his working-men, and said: “ Beyond the limits of the earth, where the earth meets the sky, lives the greatest of all shamans, Scabby-one. Call on him, and say to him, ‘ MekmgIn requests you to revive his son.’ ” H e selected for his messengers iour of his best reindeer. He hitched up, bade the men sit down, laid the reins on the reindeer, and put the

Chukchee MnleriaZs, p.235.

596 A MEKICA N AN THRO POLOGf S T [N. S., 4, 190’2

nooses around the men’s wrists; then he charmed the heads and ears of the reindeer, the sledges, and the harness. Then he blew on the reindeer, and they flew away high up in the air like geese.

Scabby-one has a hundred houses, which stand on the “attainable limit of the sky.” His whole body is covered with scabs, His mouth and palate, hands and feet, lips and eyes, soles, and ends of his nails, are covered with scabs. His wife moves him about like a log. Before the arrival of the messengers he said to his wife: ‘I Place me near the rear wall and give me my drum. I shall beat it for a while, I shall look around in a dream.” H e struck the drum, which hung on a line from the ceiling because he was unable to hold it. After a while he said to his wife: “Have plenty of food cooked today. Guests are coming.” H e had hardly finished speaking when the men came. “ Oh! ” said Scabby-one, “ who are you, and who sent you?”--“We are MeCmgrn’s n~en.”--“How did you travel ? ”-“With reindeer.” - “ What are ieindeer ? What are they like ? ”- “ Don’t you know ? What do you and your people live on; there are so many of you ? What kind of herds do you keep ? ”- “ H e r d s of dogs. And indeed around the houses were walking innumerable dogs, large and fat, equal in size to reindeer. I want to look at them.” The men did so. The shaman looked them over and over, and said, “ These reindeer are mine.” They thought, “ Now, how are we going to get back ? ” H e guessed their thoughts immediately, and said: “ Why do you doubt me I They thought again: “ How can he take our reindeer? The dogs will tear them to pieces.” Well,” replied Scabby-one, though nobody spoke a word, “ I can so arrange that the dogs won’t worry them. Bring the reindeer here.” H e charmed their ears, noses, and mouths; and the reindeer went to the houses, lifting their tails like dogs. “ Let us go,” said Scabby-one. There was a steep mountain close to the village. “ Let us climb up,” said he. They took him by his arms and carried him off to the top. “ Now lie down to sleep,” said Scabby-one, and he made them lie down side by side. As soon as they had shut their eyes, he bade all the grass on the mountain-top to gather around his hands, and began to make a grass harness. When it was finished, he commanded it to tie itself around the necks of the sleepers. Then he took the reins and rode across the sky, alighting on the mountain near MedmgIn’s village. T h e two men did not know what had happened, but all the while remained in a deep sleep.

H e lies in his sleeping-room unable to move.

We live on dog meat.”

“Bring me your reindeer.

Do I need your reindeer ? ”

BOGORAS] THE FOLKLORE OF NORTHEASTBRN ASIA 597

Scabby-one entered MeCmgIn’s house. The father was sitting before the decayed body of his s.on, and did not even lift his head. ‘ I I have come at your call,” said Scabby-one. “ Although it may be diffi- cult to find him who has been carried away, still an attempt may be made. Have you sought for your son ? ” - “ I have.” - “ Where have you sought ? ” - “ Every- where.” - “ Have you found anything ? ” - “ Nothing.”-“ In the sky above our heads are numerous shining stars. Have you looked among them ? ”-“ I have.” - “ Well ? ”- “ Nothing.” - “ Oh, where can we find your son if he is not there ?

“ In the sea yonder live numerous large animals, walruses,-thong- seals, small seals. Have you looked among them ? ” - “ I have.” - “ Well ? ”-“ Nothing.”-“ Oh, where can we find your son if he is not there ?”- “ In the depths of the sea live another set of medium-sized beings, white, red, gray fishes, naked or covered with scales. Have you sought among those ? ” - “ I have,” - “ Well ? ” - “ Nothing.” - “ Oh, where can we find him if not there!

“ Onthebottom of the sea live a third set of small beings,-shells, star- fish, worms, sea-bugs. Have you looked among those ? ”- “ I have.” -“ Well? ” - “ Nothing.” - “ Oh, where shall we find him if not there ?

“ On the land all kinds of animals are running around, -reindeer, foxes, bears, hares, wolves. On the earth’s skin creep various insects, - white-capped beetles, centipedes, lady-bugs, and black beetles. Through the earth’s bosom countless red worms are squeezing themselves. Have you sought among all these ? ” - “ Yes.”- “ Well ? ” -

Have you looked among those, from one stalk to another? ”- ‘‘ I have.” - ‘‘ Have you looked over all willow-sprouts in the brush ? Have you looked over all larch-trees in the forest ? ” - ‘‘ Yes, I have.” - “ The banks of the rivers are covered with pebbles. Have you sought among those ? ” - “ Yes.” - “ Well ? ” - ‘‘ Nothing.’’- ’‘ Oh, where shall we find your son if he is not there ? ” - “ Everything visible and tangible, all that exists on the earth -have you looked over all that ?”-“ Yes.” “ Well ? ” - “ Kothing.”

“ Under this earth exists another world, belonging to the Ke’Zet. I t has skies of its own, stars, sun and moon, land and sea. Have you looked over all that exists on that earth, the stars above, the fishes in the sea, the herbs of the field, and the worms in the soil ? ” - “ Yes.”- ‘‘ Well ? ” - “ Nothing.”

I t too

And we are both equally gifted in magic.

Nothing.”- “ Oh, where can we find him if he is not there ? 41

“ O n the earth’s surface grow countless weeds and herbs.

“ Under that world there is a third world, peopled with men.

598 AMEXICA N ANTHKOPOLOGIST [K. s.. 4, 1902

has a sun and a moon, stars, and waters. Have you sought among the things in that world ?

“Yonder, above the outer side of the sky, there is a world, belonging to the upper Ke‘Zet, with new stars, sun and moon, and sea. Have you looked among them ?

“ Over that world there exists one more, belonging to men, having earth and stars, with game in the forests, and fish in the water. Have you sought there ? ”- “ Yes.”

“ Which world has more life, the upper or the under one ? ”-“ They are just equal.”--“ Which sea has more fish, which land more game, which air more birds, the upper or the under one ? ” - “ They are just equal.” - “ Have you searched the world of sunset ? ” - “ Yes.”- “ Have you searched the world of sunrise, and that of the last rays of the twilight, and that of the noon, and that of the midnight ? ”- “ Yes, every one. H e is nowhere.”

“ Highest of all there is a small world quite by itself, belonging t o the female KkZE-bird. Have you looked there?”--“ No. I don’t know it.” - “ H e is probably there. The bird must have carried away your boy, I will go and see.”

Then far away was heard the clatter of the drum. Rising out of the ground, he flew upward with his drum to the world of the WE-bird.

Twice he went up, and then came down again, crossing his own tracks like a hunted fox. Then he reached the small world above, and found a large stone house. Look- ing down the vent-hole, he saw a sleeping-room of stone. As he looked through its walls, he saw the boy’s soul pinioned with iron bands behind the large lamp, each joint tied separately. The KkZE-bird had carried him away for her food, and pinioned him there. Every morning she would ask, “ What kind of food did you eat on earth I ”- “ I ate reindeer-meat, seal-blubber, walrus-fat, and whale-skin.” Then she would fly away over the three worlds, and would bring back every kind of meat, which she gave him to make him fatter. Huge pieces of fat and meat were suspended from the stone walls of the house. At the time of the shaman’s arrival the bird was not at home; but two rkKRe# were tied in front of the entrance. Their ears kept turning toward every direction and noticed even the slightest noise. Scabby- one transformed himself into a mosquito and attempted to fly in, but the monsters snapped at him when they heard the buzzing of his wings. H e turned into a gadfly, but to no avail. He turned into a white- capped beetle, but with no better success. “ Oh, bad luck! ” he cried. He turned into a carrion-fly, and in this shape flew into the house.

H e rattled with the drum and sank into the earth.

Two worlds were on his road.

BOGORAS] THE FOLKLORE OF N O R T f l E A S T E h ” A S l A 599

The rt‘kkeii dogs did not hinder him, because there were many carrion- flies around the meat. He went into the sleeping-room, cut the soul’s bonds and transformed it into another carrion-fly. They escaped from the house, and made their way toward their own world, crossing their tracks as before, and turning hither and thither like hunted foxes. When they had reached the lowest sky, however, the &%?-bird overtook them. Why did you carry away m y little boy ?” - “ Stolen from the thief, restored to the owner,” answered Scabby-one.-“ Give him back to me, or I shall kill you! ” The beating of her wings made them flutter in the air like dry leaves. “ Oh,” said Scabby-one, ‘‘she really wants to kill me. Now I shall try.” Pulling his right hand up his sleeve, he moved his little finger upwards. Fire fell down, singeing the ME-bird’s wings. “ Oh, oh! ” cried she, “indeed, you want to kill me. She beat her wings again; but to no avail, for her feathers were singed.

“Let us make haste,” said Scabby-one. The people in MeCmgIn’s house heard a distant clatter. It descended, sank into the earth, ‘and after a while rose in the middle of the sleeping-room. “ I have brought the boy. He called his K d t i and gave them the boy’s soul to hold, and then looked hard at the decayed heap and gulped it down, spattering the putrid fluid about. Then he shouted, “Bring a new white skin! ” H e vomited, and spat out the boy’s body. All the bones were in their right places, and the flesh stuck to the bones again. Then he swallowed the body a second time and spat it out again. I t was covered with new skin, all sores were smoothed down. H e swallowed it a third time and spat it out again: blood mounted in the cheeks, and the lips almost wanted to speak. Scabby-one shouted, “ Give me the soul ! ” H e swallowed it and spat it down on the body. The soul passed through the body and stuck in the wall of the house. “ The body is too cold,” said Scabby-one; ‘‘ it will not hold together.” He swallowed the body a fourth time, warmed it in his stomach, and spat it out again on the skin. Then he flung the soul at it. “Oh, oh, oh! ” sighed the boy, and then sat down on the skin.

H e said: “ I am going now. Let all people enter the house and not come out again, because I shall take with me everything that is outside. You must take good care of the boy. Since he has come back from the dead, he will be a great shaman, even greater than I; but his heart and mind will in- cline to the bad. Still do not thwart him, for, if you do, he will over- power you.” He beat his drum, began an incantation, and moved

She shouted : “ KO, ko, ko!

Now it is my turn.”

Then Scabby-one killed the KdE-bird and burnt her to ashes.

Let us make haste! ” said Scabby-one.

Then Scabby-one was paid with a herd of reindeer.

600 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [N. S., 4, 1 9 2

around the house. Presently the sound of the song, the rattling of the drum, and the clattering of the reindeer-hoofs were heard ascending higher and higher, first to the level of the vent-hole, then over it; then it gradually vanished upward.

As soon as Scabby-one had left, Rfntew began to maltreat the people. He ran about in the night outraging every woman, even the oldest, and beating every man. If they tried to work evil charms against him, he caught the charms, gathered the secret words of the would-be sorcerers in a mitten, and in the morning distributed them among their owners, saying, “ This is your word, and this is yours, and this is yours.”

His father began to repent of his restoration to life, for the people were coming every day with fresh complaints. Finally he said, “ We will remove him to another world.” He went towards sunset to find a kt?.E-witch.

The witch immediately complied with his request and went to MeCmgrn’s house, carrying her long staff with blood-stained point. She posted herself in ambush before the entrance, but Rfntew guessed her purpose, turned into a white goose, and flew away through the vent-hole. The witch gave chase, but he escaped to the land of darkness. Then he lost his way in the dark, wandered around, and suddenly stumbled over a screech-owl, which said, “ Oh, oh! Don’t kick me! ”-“Why, are you a man too?”--‘(Yes, we are residents of this country, and have a house here in the darkness.”-“If you are residents here, give me shelter; I am weary, and want to sleep.”-“Come in,” said the owl; and he put him under his wing. He continued, “ When you want to pass water, ask for a tub.”

The next day he went on, and had a similar adventure with an eagle. ‘‘ There is your way,” said the eagle, pointing straight ahead, where a small bright spot was visible, not larger than the hole made in the reindeer-skin by a reindeer fly’s larva. “That light comes from the bright world. You must know, however, that the old woman has placed her staff across the entrance the whole length of the earth, She has transformed it into a high ridge of iron mountains. She has split herself in two, and each half keeps guard at one end of the staff. Do not try to go around the ridge, but climb across it, no matter how steep it may be. Go straight ahead to the place where you see a red line glowing, like red rust on iron. I t is the blood with which the point of her staff is smeared. If you try to go around the ridge you will be killed. Even if you were the greatest of all shamans you would be‘killed.”

The people were powerless against him.

In the morning he bade him farewell.

BOGORAS] THE FOLKLORE OF NORTHEASTERN ASIA 60 I

In due time Rfntew reached the mountains. They were quite ver- tical. Still he began to climb, clinging to the iron rocks with his nails and teeth. After a few steps he lost his foothold and tumbled down, but to his amazement he found himself on the other side of the mountains.’ Thus Rfntew came back home and immediately resumed his old tricks. His father made a second attempt to put him out of the way, and summoned alittle old woman of the Kerek tribe,’ who succeeded in depriv- ing Rfntew of his senses, and then sent him out-doors to fetch some small thing. Meanwhile she transformed the sleeping-room into one world, and the house into another. Thus when leaving the house he really went out of two worlds. He recovered his senses on a high cliff, astride of a piece of rock overhanging the sea, and in such a position that the slightest motion would have made him lose his hold. H e sat there for five days, when at last he saw a raven flying by. “0 , Rfntew! man of many tricks, how did you get t he re?” -“ I don’t know.” - “ Get down! ” - “ I cannot.”-“ Will not any of your tricks make you free?”- “ You had better come and help me.”- “ What a re you ready to pay ? ”-“ Anything you want.”--“ When you come home, kill every living thing for my food.”- “All right.”-“Then hold your breath and listen. One day and one night will pass away, then you will see a drift-log carried by on the waves. When it is close by, leap down from your seat; don’t think whether you will break your neck or not. When you have alighted on the log, you will pass into the open sea. Shut your eyes, then you will reach the shore. When you hear the rattle of the pebbles, go ahead to firm ground. With eyes shut, take a handful of pebbles and pour them from one hand into the other. They will become softer and softer. When at last you feel that they are as soft a s cloudberries, throw them behind you over your head. Then you will be lifted and carried across another sea. Shut your eyes and take a handful of pebbles, and pour them from hand to hand. Again you will be carried across the sea. On that shore you will find a small camping-site. Then on another camping-site J ou will find a round bead as red as a cloudberry. When you reach home, make a sniall drum, skin a black beetle to cover it, then perform the mie” ’ Z y f n rites for the needle and the bead.” *

Search it attentively; you will find a needle.

1 In another version the mountain-ridge. though it appears very high from afar, assumes its real size-that of the woman’s staff -when he reaches it. After that he meets a large sea, which, when he reaches it, is seen to be a flat drum.

A branch of the Koryak having a great reputation for skill in magic. The main feature of these rites is a thank-offering to the souls of objects found,

or obtained in hunting.

602 A M E R i C A N A N THROPOLOCIST [N. s., j, I902

Thus Rfntew came home and sent word to all his neighbors, saying he would perform a great ceremony. Meanwhile he began to construct a large wooden house, and finished i t before all the people had assem- bled. The Kerek witch came too, and he made a round mound for her seat, because she was so small. “Needle, come down!” he sang, I t came down on a slender shining thread. H e asked, “ To whom shall I give it ? ” - “ Me, me! ” exclaimed all the women around. But the needle went up again, and vanished through the vent-hole.

“When I wandered, lost among the unknown worlds, I held in my hand pebbles, which softened like cloudberries. Here is my cloudberry as hard as a pebble.” The cloudberry bead came down on the shining metal thread. “ Who will take this pendant ?“-“I will! ” cried all the women around, and tried to lay hold of it. Again Rfntew beat his beetle-skin drum, and chanted on: “When I sat on the stone pillar overhanging the sea, I promised some trifle to the black raven. You cackling one, take now your booty! You little Kerek witch, do you feel gratified ? Your charms will fall down on your own wicked body.” With a single leap he sprang out through the vent-hole. The beetle- skin drum followed, and, suddenly expanding, stuck in the opening. All doors and exits vanished. Of its own accord the drumstick began to beat the drum from beneath. The bead commenced to enlarge; at first it grew to the size of the upper piece of a drill, then to that of an infant’s head; then it became as large as a reindeer’s pauiich, then as a blubber-bag, then as the carcass of a fat walrus, larger and larger, filling the house, and squeezing the people to the beams. The drumstick rattled on, the bead grew, blood oozed through the beams, the house burst and fell down. A bloody stream flowed to the sea from Rfntew’s building.

Thus he exterminated all his people, and became the ancestor of a new tribe.’

They went into the building and entirely filled it.

Then he started with his incantations.

Rintew beat his beetle-skin drum and chanted on.

Animal Tales.-A considerable part of t h e animal stories of

Concerning pebbles turned into beads, cf. Nelson, “ Eskimo about Bering Strait,” Eightcenth Repwt Bureau of American Ethnology, 1896-97, p. 512. The details of another Chukchee tale resemble the Alaskan story more closely. A woman is floating on a sealskin float in the darkness. She comes to a shore, sinks ankle-deep into heaps of small soft things, takes a number of them, and afterward, when she reaches our world, finds them to be beads.

= Chukrhee Materials, p. 201.

BOGORAS] 7’aE FOLKLORE OF NOR THEASTERN ASZA 603

the Chukchee relate t o the Raven myth, and will be treated later. Others are generally short, and refer to various animals which often have special names. The fox is called “ field-woman ” (nzt’te-Wdut) ; the mouse, “ breech-woman ” (quim&?dzit) ; the spermophilus, ‘ I spermophilus-woman ” (yih-r;idut) ; small spider, I ‘ spider-woman ” (Kd~gu-Whtkt) ; a certain small black beetle, ‘ I shining-black-woman (tdgqi-Wdut). All these animals are females. Chiefly in incantations and i n shamanistic performances, male animals bear special names. The wild reindeer is called “air- went-out’’ (dig~nto), because of his fear of human smell. T h e black bear is called “ the-little-one-walking-afoot ” (&bulzqii), or I ‘ living-under-the-(steep-) hill ” ( m e w d h ) .

The animal stories of other West Bering tribes are, in general character and even in details, very much like those of the Chuk- chee. Animal subjects are treated in a similar manner from Kolyma river to Kamchatka. A she-fox, who wants t o help an old man, advises him to make a large rug of white hare-skin, and to spread it across an open place in a frozen river. She finds some elks, and, under the pretext of running a race, contrives to bring them to the covered spot, where they break through and are speared by the old man. This tale exists among the Chuk- chee, Koryak, Yukaghir‘ of the upper Kolyma,’ Russianized Yukaghir of the lower Kolyma, and Kamchadale.

The subjects of the animal stories are treated in the same way in the folklore of the Chukchee and of the American Eskimo, though with different details. Sometimes two stories from the Asiatic and the American sides are so strikingly alike in character, notwithstanding the difference in subject and details, that one feels as i f they were both from the same place and stock. Here is an instance :

A mosquito, when practising ceremonial songs in his dwelling, saw “Make a healthy boy passing by. “What a fine boy!” quoth he.

Jochelson, Materials for the Study o f the Yukaghir Lanpage and Folklore, St Petersburg. 1900, p. 30.

604 AMERICAN A NTHKOPOLOGlS r [N. S., 4, 1902

haste! ” he said, turning to his wife. “ Give me my boots and mittens! I must be after him ! Hurry up ! I shall miss him! Stay ! Last night I had a dream; my wing became sprained. What may be the reason for this dream ! Here, my boots ! He walks away ! Queer dream ! Fine boy ! ” He flew off, alighted on the boy’s forehead and began to drink, but the boy rubbed the spot and crushed him.

Oh, well ! It is all right !

His wings were sprained.

This short Chukchee tale is a good match for “ The Lemming and the Owl ” of the American Eskimo, though not dealing with the same subject.

The animal stories of the Ainu, and even of the Japanese, though the latter are much more elaborate, belong evidently to the same group of tales.

I do not need to discuss fully here the division of Chukchee folklore relating to wars with their neighbors, although such stories are elaborate and sometimes even do not lack epic breadth and force. Some incidents, however, bearing marked resemblance to American stories, will be discussed later.

II.-COMPARISON BETWEEN THE FOLKLORE OF NORTHEASTERN SIBERIA A N D THAT OF THE ESKIMO.

A comparison between the folklore of both sides of Bering sea may be made in two directions: first, between the American Eskimo and the Asiatic Chukchee, who live in the immediate neighborhood of the Eskimo ; and, second, between the Indians of northwestern America and the tribes of northeastern Siberia. In the present chapter a comparison between Chukchee and Eskimo folklore will be drawn.

The Chukchee show many traces of the material and mental influence exerted by the Eskimo. I must mention, however, that the Asiatic Eskimo, who live in a few villages along the northern part of the western shore of Bering sea, though closely resembling the American branches of their people in their means of material subsistence, language, social customs, etc., have not preserved much of original Eskimo folklore. The tales that I could

BOGORAS] THE FOLKLORE OF NORTHEASTERN ASIA 605.

collect among them are, for the greater part, disjoined and inco- herent. Even the most characteristic Eskimo stories, if known at all, are believed by them to have originated among the Chuk- chee. This, of course, may have been caused by their position among the Asiatic tribes, though the Alaskan material published in Nelson's memoir strikes me as being of the same character.

The general character of Chukchee and Eskimo tales is quite alike, and the chief topics on both sides of Bering sea are about the same. I will briefly describe the most frequent ones.

A young boy is left alone in the wilderness, or starved and despised by his village neighbors. His bad luck is often shared by his old grandmother. With the gradual increase of his strength and nimbleness, or. by means of magic help, or in some other way, he becomes a successful hunter and warrior, and ultimately, out of revenge, kills all the other inhabitants of the village, leaving only a few survivors.

A wife is cast off by her husband for the sake of another By some magic influence she seeks revenge on him and

Her husband, or sometimes her brother, goes in search of her, and, after various adventures, comes to the land of the aggressor. H e is offered a trial of strength, comes out as the victor, and carries back his wife or sister.

A man or two men seeking adventure, or a poor boy seeking a chance of bettering his lot, come to a rich and powerful man with a beautiful daughter, who has many suitors. The new- coiners must submit to various tests of strength and shamanistic skill; they prove victors, and carry away the bride. Often the young man does not ask permission of the father, but contrives on the first night t o gain access to the bride, though she is con- fined in an iron box. She receives him with joy, and in the morning the parents adapt themselves to the inevitable.

In regard to the shamanistic contest, it is important t o state

woman. on her rival.

A woman is carried away by a mighty being.

606 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGZST [N. S., 4, 190’2

that in many West Bering tales it is carried out in special ceremonial-houses evidently similar to those existing everywhere in America.

I n the story of “The Scabby Shaman,”’ Rfntew, on returning from his last journey, constructs a special singing-house, and invites all his neighbors to a ceremony in the same way as is done by so many Eskimo and Indian heroes. A t the present time there are no tribal singing-houses, or anything of that sort, on the west coast of Bering sea, and even the traditions in regard to them are ex- ceedingly scanty. From some hints in Krasheninikoff’s book it might seem that the Kamchadale had some common place for ceremonies held by the united inhabitants of the village.’ Lieu- tenant Hooper ’ very definitely describes a dancing-house (council- room as well as theater, he says) in the Asiatic Eskimo village of Uiiisak (Indian point), visited by him in 1848. At present, however, even the oldest inhabitants do not remember anything about such houses. In the Chukchee village of Nhligren, about a hundred miles westward from Indian point, I found ;hat one of the former underground houses, which are now replaced by tent- like dwellings, was used by all families in turn for their autumn ceremonies. Even now the house belongs to one family. For- merly other families had to pay for its use by special offerings every autumn. Three years ago this ceremonial-house was abandoned, a‘hd at the time of my visit it was full of congealed snow ayd of earth that had crumbled from the walls.

The subjects mentioned above, and others similar to them, are treated by both the Chukchee and the American Eskimo in a similar way, with a whole series of identical incidents and characteristic details.

I will give here a few examples of stories alike in many details.

See p. 595. Krasheninikoff, Dcscriplion of the Land Kamchatka, vol. 11, chap. xiii, S t

Petersburg, 1819. Ten Months among the Tuski, London, 1853.

noGauAs] THE FOLKLORE OF NORTHEASTEEN ASZA 607

I . An old maid, unable to find a husband, hugs for spite an old whale-skull lying on the beach. The skull suddenly comes to life and drags her away into the sea, notwithstanding the efforts of her female companions. The whale carries her, through the passage between the opening and shutting rocks, to a village across the sea, and makes her his wife. His whole body is covered with sores, and she has to pick out the barnacles, and in doing so wears her fingers away to the very bones. Her brother a t home wants to find her, and constructs a boat, which he remodels over and over again in order t o make it swifter. The third time it vies with the birds flying above. Still he is not content ; he reconstructs it again, and at last can leave behind even the small qata'yaChZn (Sterna hirundo), the swiftest of all birds. Eight men go in this boat t o the land of the whale. They pass through the passage between the moving rocks. The woman's brother leaves the boat and its crew on shore, and with one companion starts for the village. On the way they kill two ermines and two small birds (the species is not indicated), and take off their skins, to be used as protecting amulets. The whale-man treats them with the best of his provisions, then suggests that they shall have some amusement, meaning a shamanistic contest. The lights are put out. The sea comes into the house, but they put on their bird-skins, and swim on the surface of the water. Then a heavy round stone is brought in, the lights are again put out, and the stone begins to roll all over the ground; but the visitors put on their ermine-skins and escape underground. A t night they lead away the woman and make their escape in their boat. The whale pursues, and nearly overtakes them, but is de- layed by the woman, who throws into the water different parts of her dress. Every time he reaches part of her dress, he stops to look at it. Finally he comes too near to the shore, and is killed by the villagers.

The rescued woman is with child, and in due time gives birth to a young whale. First she keeps it in a water-tub and feeds it

608 A M E R I C A N A N T H R O P O L O G I S T [N. S., 4, 1902

with small worms: then she carries it to a lake and feeds it with small fish. A t the same time she allows it freely her breast. After a long interval she carries it to the sea, and it swims away. I t comes back soon, however, and brings along with it several other whales which are tempted by its insinuating words. They are destined to be killed by the people. The whole coast pros- pers. But the mother, fearing for her whale-son, sews two red tassels to his back to serve as a mark of identification. Finally the whale is killed by a native of a neighboring village, who envies the prosperity of the whale’s relatives. This leads to a war of extermination.’

Many details, such as the opening and shutting rocks, the boat equaling birds in swiftness, the crew of eight nien who are left in concealment on a strange shore, two companions going to the village, the protecting skin amulets, the shamanistic contest, and a heavy stone rolling around the house in the darkness, often be- smeared with the blood of its former victims, commonly occur in the tales of the Chukchee.

The gate of moving rocks is called “attainable border of the sky ” (yk$-jkktt-tdg/n), or otherwise “ attainable border of the birds ” (gdZha-pkkt-t&zrz). According to Chukchee belief, the birds, when flying to their own world every fall, have to pass through this gate. The rocks shut so quickly that those lagging behind are caught and crushed between them. The ground all around the rocks is covered a fathom deep with bloody mud of pounded bird-flesh, Feathers fly around like snow ; but there is no other passage.

Five went hunting and never returned. The youngest remained at home, and the mother refused to let him go out. They lived on scraps of the worst seal-meat, which they received as alms from their neighbors.

2. An old woman had six sons.

1 Chzlkchee Materials, p. 197. Compare Rink, TaZes and Traditions of the Eskimo, “ A Tale about Two Girls,” p. 126 ; Boas, Eskimo o f Bafln Land, “ Story of Three Girls,” p. 317.

uoeoRAs] THE FOLKLORE OF NOKTHEASTEHN A S l A 609

Finally the boy succeeded i n getting away unobserved by his mother. He reached a steep mountain, ascended its top, but stumbled and rolled down the other side. On the middle of the slope he was stopped by a net (or trap) made of knives sticking upward from the ground; but he was not hurt. H e was, however, unable to escape. Suddenly he heard a voice, “Oh , oh! the little seal nearly escaped ! ” It was k d h , who took him by the neck and began to tickle him on the belly in order to make sure that he was dead. But the boy hardened his muscles, and the KdZE thought he was dead. He lashed him on a sled. The k d E tightened the lines, and the boy strained himself so much when hardening his body, that he broke wind. (In another version, the k/dE carries the boy on his back ; but on the way the boy stealthily holds on to the grass and to the branches of the trees. Then he suddenly lets them go and makes the k6ZE stumble and fall on his face.’)

When the ME reaches home, his children run to meet him, and joyfully exclaim, “ A seal ! A seal ! ” (In another version, one says, “ I shall have his eyes ! ” Another, “ I shall have his paws ! ” and a third one wants to have his nose.)

The children begin to examine him and feel of him ; but on th-e sly he pinches the leg of one. The boy whimpers from pain. Then the father says, “ Don’t ! Somehow, when I tightened its lashings on the sled, it cracked.” The mother begins to prepare the meal, and hangs over the fire a large kettle out of which stick human hands, shrunken and shriveled. “ These are my brothers’ hands,” thinks the boy. After supper the kdE- woman wants to skin the seal, but, on feeling it, finds that it is still too soft, and not hardened by frost. (In another version it is still too hard to be carved, the reason being that the boy was hardening his muscles.)

“Leave it till

The kdlE brings him into the house.

This is a strange little seal.

“Strange little seal!” repeats her husband. I Compare also Boas, fndianircke Sagen, “ Sneneiq,” p. 251. AM. ANTH. N. S., 4-39.

610 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGZST [N. S., 4, 1902

totnorrow.” Before going to sleep he takes his chamber-pot, defecates into it, and bids his excrements to watch over the boy. After a while the boy moves his leg. The excrements immediately begin to shriek and give warning. “Kaw, kaw, kaw! Look after the seal! ” The K ~ E gets up, but the boy is again motionless. ‘( Why ! ” says the k d E , ‘ I you are playing jokes on me! ” and he urinates on top of his excrements. Again he goes to sleep. The boy turns his head. “ Kaw, kaw, kaw ! ” screams the vessel, but not so loud as before. The boy quickly stands up and fills the vessel with his own urine and excrements, thus smothering the voice. Then he takes the round meat-knife of the hf?lE-WOman and kills the whole family.’ (In another version he says, while cutting the neck of the first boy, I ‘ Here are the eyes for you ! ” and while killing the second, “ Here are the paws for

This tale is analogous to the second part of the Eskimo tale of ‘‘ Nareya,” ’ though many details, such as human hands sticking out of the kettle, recall other Eskimo tales. In one of these,’ it is told that a brother, visiting his sister married in a strange land, is treated to a dish of blubber mixed with berries, on the bottom of which he perceives shrunken human hands.

In a version of this tale collected among the Russianized Yukaghir on the lower Kolyma, the berries in the dish consist of red finger-ends chopped off ande boiled in blubber. The young children of the k d E call them “ cloudberries,” and keep asking their mother for some.

On the other hand, some episodes of the Nareya tale appear in other Chukchee stories. For instance, in No. 164 of “ Chuk- chee Materials,” the KPZE pursues some young girls, who succeed in crossing the river. Unable to find the ford, the k d E , following their advice, tries t o drink all the water of the river, and then

you ! ”)

’ ChukcAee Moteriah, p. 192.

a Kink, Thles nna‘ Traditions, p. 130. Boas, Eskimo of Ba$?r Lana‘, p. 177.

BOGORAS] THE FOLKLORE OF NORTHEASTERN ASZA 61 I

begins to cross. The girls bid him hurry, but a t his first quick step he bursts.

The bird-woman story is also common to the Chukchee and to the Eskimo. A man sees five white and beautiful women bathing in a lake. On the beach he finds their white goose-skin jackets and takes possession of them. The women come to the shore and ask for their jackets. The last one is the fairest of all. She is as pretty as fire. The man refuses to return her jacket, while the others put on their jackets, turn into white geese, and fly away. The man takes the goose-woman to his house and makes her his wife. After a whiie the mother-in-law bids her go into the country to dig edible roots. She brings grass-stalks instead. T h e old woman scolds her and makes her weep. As soon as the birds begin t o migrate, the goose-woman, who cannot sleep a t night, watches them, and wants t o speak to them. She calls, and asks them for help. ‘ I Take me to our land,” she says. They reply : “ We have no sledges.” Then each drops one feather from its wings. She gathers these feathers, sews them to her sleeves, and flies away with the geese. The man reproves his mother and bids her make for him ten pairs of new boots. H e fills the boots with provisions and starts in pursuit of his goose-wife. Each day he wears out one pair of boots and consumes the provision con- tained in them. At last, having used up all his boots, he comes to the seashore. A little old man stands on the beach, chopping wood with an adze. (In another version, the chips of wood, when falling to the ground, are transformed into fish. In still another, they glide away to the sea and turn into fishes.) H e looks at the old man’s anus, and perceives that he can look through him right up to his mouth. He enters the anus and comes out of the mouth. “ Where do you come from ? ” asks the old man. “ From your right side,” answers he, fearing to anger him if he should tell the truth. The old man bids him bring a log of driftwood that lies near by. With his adze he hollows it out, and makes a canoe

3.

She gives birth to a son.

Twelve white geese fly by.

612 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [N. S., 4, IgOz

with a tight cover that fits like the lid of a snuff-box. I n this canoe the man crosses to another shore. His little son plays on the beach with other children and reports to the goose-woman that her husband has come. She does not believe him, but at last steps out to meet the new-comer. " Why did you come? " she asks. A very strong person has taken me to be his wife ! "-ii Well," replies he, (' I came for death, not for life ! "

H e is the proudest and strongest man in the village. His house stands in front of all the others. He attacks his visitor, who wrings the gull's neck and throws him down. The bird-people gather in crowds and attack the man. They shoot at him with their wing-feathers, but he snatches a club and lays low hundreds. Then he returns with his wife and child in the same lid-covered canoe.'

In another version the bird-husband is a powerful eagle- shaman, and is overcome only with the aid of other bird-shamans, -the tern, the raven, and the hawk.' This eagle-shaman appears frequently in Chukchee tradition, and sometimes has the character of the thunder-bird, or even of the ruler of the world. The eagle, by the way, even at the present time, is protected by taboo, and to kill him is believed to bring tempest and bad weather.

This whole tale closely resembles the Eskimo story of " Ititau- jang,"' only the end is different. The episode of geese-women bathing in a lake, however, is known all over the world, and forms one of the common nursery tales of civilized countries. The incident of birds shooting with their wing-feathers occurs also among the Indians of the North Pacific coast.' In Eskimo tales

'' They will kill you !

A glaucus gull (Larusglaucus) is the woman's husband.

Chukchee il//aterials, p. 290. Ibid., p. 294.

&Boas, Eskimo of B a 8 n Land, p. 179. 41bid., lndianische Sagen, p. 89, and 7'simshian Texts (Bulletin, Bureau of

Ethnology, ~ g o z ) , p. 114.

BOGORAS] T H E FOLKLORE OF NORTHEASTERN ASZA 613

the canoe made or given by the old man is usually a fishbone. In one Alaska version, however, it is a king-salmon, hollow inside.’ The old man bids the man enter it, and then shuts it. This is much more like the Chukchee incidents. The ten pairs of new boots filled with provisions, that the hero takes when leaving for a long journey, often occur in Chukchee tradition. In the Es- kimo tale of “ Kiviuk,” they are replaced by several pairs of new mittens to be worn on the proposed journey. Both versions may have sprung from an episode in a wide-spread Old World tale, where the hero, when starting in search of his wife or bride, orders three pairs of iron boots, three iron hats, and three iron staffs, which are to serve him on the journey. I n a tale from Lower Fraser river, the hero going after his wife makes for himself a hundred pairs of boots for the journey.*

There are some other incidents that evidently originated on the mainland of Asia and were carried to the west shore of Bering sea and farther on to America. Such is the reviving of the dead by sprinkling them with the water of life, after which they usually sit up and remark on their prolonged sleep.’ When this water is mentioned in Chukchee tales, it is often stated that it is carried in a tiny bottle-a circumstance evidently taken from tales of the Old World. The bottle, which was quite unknown in ancient Chukchee culture, is described as “something like a fish gall-bladder ” (.&m~-libz-wu’rr~n).

4. A party of five girls, four of whom are small and the fifth grown up, walk around seeking food, and find a large house. Instead of dogs, four large bears are tied in front of the door. A KPZE comes out and invites the girls to enter. Then he offers them the best of various kinds of food. At night he wants the youngest to sleep in his bed, and promises to keep her warm, but

Francis liarnuin, C~-amma.tiral Fundaments of the Innuit Language, *‘ Story

Boas, Eskimo of Baj in /.and. p. 185. Ibid., Indinnische Aayen, p. 4’. Ibid.. p. 196.

of the Stolen Wife,” p. 292, col. 2 , 8 4.

614 AMERlCAN A N THKOPOLOGZS T [N. S., 4, 1902

instead he devours her. In the morning, while he goes out to hunt reindeer, the girls take flight. H e kills a hundred reindeer and carries them home in a single load. '( Where are the guests? " asks he of his household utensils. '' Gone ! " hisses the lamp. " Where is the line-worm?'' he asks. A large red dew-worm starts in pursuit, head foremost : his tail is tied to the lamp in the sleeping-room, but he is long enough to go out in search of them. The M E conjures up a gale and a snow-storm, in which the fugitive girls lose their way. Finally they are overtaken by the giant worm, and driven back to the k d d s house. The ME eats another girl, then still another. The largest one is left till the last. She implores the kdZE to let her live. She says, " I will be a slave to you. My mother told me, 'Grow up as fast as you can! Yonder lives a KPZE who wants woman's assistance. We will send you to him ! ' "-" No ! " he replies, " I want t o taste of your soul ! " -" At least make me fatter ! He consents, and for two days feeds her with the best of his supplies, -reindeer tallow, sausages, and dried fat. On the third morning the girl says, " I want to go out. Don't worry if I don't come back soon. I am so fat that I have trouble in emptying my bowels. Give me your knife, too : I want to cut off some scraps of soft skin for my use." The KPCE gives her the knife, but ties her to a strong line. Once outside of the door, the girl cuts the line in two, ties the other end to a hummock, and flies straightway to her village.

" Prob- ablyshe is too fat, and unable to make an exertion. I t is time to eat her." At last he finds out that the girl has gone, and again sends the he-worm after her. But she cuts its head off with the K ~ E ' s magic knife. Blood gushes out, and the k d E , seeing the worm's tail becoming quite bloodless, unlashes his bears and sends them after her. The girl meanwhile has met five men with spears, who kill the pursuing bears. The K ~ Z E goes himself, and

" Could you not hold them ? " retorts the ME.

I am too lean," insists the girl.

" Why has she not come back yet ? " thinks the kdZE.

BOGORAS] THE FOLKLORE OF N O H T H E A S 7 ’ E k ” A S I A 615

finds her in the house. H e thrusts his head into the sleeping- room; but a shaman who lives in the house stabs him with a blea-berry twig.’

This tale may be compared with the story of “ Igimagajug.” * T h e stuffing of the human clothes with moss or heather, which occurs in the latter tale, reappears in another Chukchee story,’ in which it is told that some girls are caught by a M E and hung in a bag on a tree: but a fox-woman passing by saves them by letting down the bag and filling it instead with moss and leaves. (In another version she fills the girls’ clothes with moss.) T h e K h , arriving later on, lets down the bag and stabs it with his knife, then takes a bite, but finds pricking twigs instead of soft flesh.

The most characteristic version of this tale belongs to the Kamchadale, where Kutq’s wife hangs some little mice in a bag on a tree. The fox lets down the bag by repeating her incantation by which she made the larch-tree bend down. The stuffing of clothes with leaves occurs also in other Chukchee tales in connection with the same cannibal KPlE; but the stuffed figure is always suspended in a bag.

5 . Eight men travel in a boat, visiting distant countries. Among other circumstances it is related that they reach a country where large masses of boiled reindeer-meat are piled up near the shore. They want t o eat of it ; but the inhabitants deter them, exclaiming, “ D O not eat i t ! They enter one of the houses and are treated to the choicest fat, kidneys, and dried tongues. The occupants, however, do not partake of the meal. They have no anuses, and explain that their method of taking food is to inhale the steam of boiling broth, after which they throw away the meat. But the new-comers eat withbso much relish that one of the villagers is tempted to imitate them. He

It is dir t !”

’ Chukchee Materials, p. 94. Boas, EsRiino of Ra@n Land, p. 312. Chukcker Materinls, p. 400.

616 A MERZCAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [N. S., 4, I902

takes a small bit, finds it to his taste, and finally takes a hearty meal. In due time, however, he feels very uncomfortable and begins to shout, " My buttocks prick me ! " Then the oldest of the travelers takes a chip and thrusts it through his breech, thus making an anus for him. The others, at their request, are fur- nished with anuses too. This tale belongs to the Russianized Yukaghir of the Kolyma, and is identical with an incident of the tale of the " Origin of the Narwhal."

6. I n the same tale the travelers find a large trunk of a tree standing upright in the middle of a bay. Every little while this trunk bends, and is submerged in the waters. After a while it stands up, glistening with fish that are caught on each of its short sharp boughs. I t has several wives living on the shore, and provides for them by its fishing. The log as husband of two wo'men occurs also in tales of the eastern Eskimo ' and, besides, in a Tlingit tale.'

7. A man starts with reindeer (or eight men start in a boat) t o visit distant countries. On the other side of the sea he finds a large village. The house of the strongest man stands nearest the beach ; but the visitor calls at the poorest house, the owner of which has not even anything for supper. The strongest man of the village is very severe upon his neighbors, and feeds them like slaves. If they do not submit t o his orders, he cuts short their supplies and strikes them with a stick. The visitor is called to the strong man's house, and in the morning a wrestling and fighting contest is proposed. The contest takes place on a walrus-hide, which is well greased to make it slippery, and into which sharp bone chips are stuck. The visitor wins, and wrings the neck of his adversary. The inhabitants of the village rejoice, because their oppressor has been punished. They divide with the visitor all the riches of the strong man. The visitor frees

This trunk is lord of the place.

' Boas, Eskimo of Bafln Land, p. 170. Ibid., Central Eskimo, p. 6 2 3 ; Eskimo of Rafln Land, p. 185. Ibid., lndianiscke Sogen, p. 326.

BOGORAS] T H E FOLKLORE OF NORTHEASTERN ASIA 617

many female prisoners who were kept in the house of the dead man ; and they all go t o their respective countries.‘

Sometimes it is the whole crew taking their turn, with fatal issue ; the host wrings their necks, o r else thrusts them through R whale’s verte- bra and thus scrapes off all the flesh from their bones. Or it is t he oldest woman of the village, who kills them with dead men’s fingers, throwing a finger on every man,-pieces of a corpse being considered very effective charms. But the last of the crew overpowers the host and thrusts him, in his turn, through the fatal hole, ‘or kills the hag and then revives his companions by means of a magic head-band, to which are tied several wooden protecting manikins, corresponding to the number of men in his crew. T h e version of the story of the wrestling-contest on the skin reminds one of the tale of “ Tiggak,” and especially of the tale of “ Ak’- chik-cha’-gQk.” I n another Chukchee tale the deadly chips are simply stuck in the ground. Chips stuck in the ground or set in a plank for the purpose of wounding a new-comer frequently occur in Indian tales.‘ The reviving of killed companions after a fighting-contest is repeated in the Shuswap tale of ‘‘ Tleesa.” ’

8. Eight brothers went t o sea in a boat, leaving the ninth, the youngest one, a t home. He went angling. T h e giant L6lhIICn went by and took him t o his house for his child t o play with. But after a while the man began t o grow. He gradually reached t h e same stature as the giant, and became a LdlhIlCn. T h e brothers returned, but could not find him, and began t o shout, calling his name. A t last he came, took them with their boat, and placed them on top of a mountain, where they may be seen as stones to the present day.’ I obtained this tale among

Eskimo, No. 10, pp. 132-143, Rink, loc. cit., p. 165.

a Nelson, loc. cit., p. 499. ‘ Boas, Indianisrhe Sagen, p. 360, 3 151.

T h e contest reappears in several Chukchee tales.

‘ Chukchee Materials, p. 345. Compare Rink, Taks and Traditions of the

Ibid., p. 2.

Compare Rink, TaZes and Traditions, ‘ * Visit to the Giants,” p. 430.

618 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [N. S., 4, 1902

the Eskimo at Indian point. In the Chukchee version the giant goes to sleep on the shore, and does not wake till the next spring. One of his cheeks is covered with ice, and injured by polar bears ; but when he awakes, he only scratches the sore and declares that the country is mangy.’

9. Three brothers, after several adventures, come to a village of some unknown people. The youngest enters one house and sees a blind old woman sitting near the hearth. He cannot re- frain from mischief, and noiselessly steps up to her, and, producing his penis, points it straight at her nose. Her nostrils begin to twitch, and she exclaims, “ I perceive the smell of a husband ! ” Then the man cannot contain his laughter. The old woman gets angry, and, with one short incantation, causes his penis t o grow continually. They have to cut off part of it and throw it into the water, because its weight is too heavy for the boat. But the elder brother makes a counter-charm, and awakes in the old woman an insatiable sexual desire. She tries finally to satisfy it with a sharp stick, and kills herself.’

10. A dog went courting a girl. H e rubbed his body with alder-bark, so that his groins became red. He said to his host,

This was done by thy daughter’s legs! ” The old man bade the girl marry the dog, who took her to his home. The dog’s mother came out, holding a burning stick in her mouth ; but the young woman kicked her back, saying, “This old bitch wants to burn me!” Some small pups jumped out, yelping for joy, but she struck them too, Then the dog drove her away and tried another girl whose temper was sweeter. From the bridal feast she took along some fine meat, and, when the pups came to meet her, she gave them small pieces. She spoke kindly to the old bitch. The husband bade her to enter the house with closed eyes. Re- opening them inside, she found a handsome sleeping-room covered

Chukchee Materials. p. 176. ZCollected among the Chukchee, 1901.

Land, p. 203 ; also Zndinnische Sagen, p. 118.

Compare Boas, EsBimo of Ba$%


with white reindeer-skins, and by her side sat a fine-looking young man. T h e dog family had a large reindeer-herd that increased rapidly, for the tireless canine legs made the owners excellent herdsmen. From that time on they began to multiply and became a tribe.'

In another version, the descendants of the dog and the woman assemble in a deserted house and begin to perform the autumnal ceremony of the reindeer sacrifice with howling instead of songs. A young girl peeps through a crevice and afterward tells the neighbors, who come with sticks and drive out the dogs. These flee t o the west, and part are transformed into men, and become the Rus- sians ; while another part put on harness, and become team-dogs.l T h e end of the second version resembles the end of the Eskimo story, where the dogs become the ancestors of the Qavdlunait.8 or Ijigat, or any other people. T h e characteristic Eskimo detail about the dog-man dragging the woman along after copulation ' appears in another Chukchee story connected with the Raven myth.6

This tale is quite popular among the Chukchee.

In other stories of the Chukchee and Eskimo, the treatment of the theme is very much the same, and the general resemblance is striking ; but many of the characteristic details of the Eskimo stories have disappeared in the Chukchee versions, and vice versa. While a single case of such similarities would not afford sufficient evidence of diffusion of tales, the whole mass is so extensive that it offers convincing proof of the strong ties between Eskimo and Chukchee folklore.

I I . A mangy orphan boy lives quite alone in the poorest hut H e finds a hungry old woman and asks of a maritime village.

I Chukchee MateriaZs, p. 108. ¶ Compare Boas, Eskimo of Sa@n Lond, p. 165. a Rink, loc. cit., p. 471.

Boas, Eskimo of Bafln Land, p, 166. See postea, p. 650.

620 R MERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [N. S., 4, 1902

her to live with him. “You shall be my grandmother,” he says. ( In another version, his grandmother lives with him.) They have nothing to cook. A t last a whale drifts ashore. She sends him to the people, saying, “ Go and ask for some meat, if only from the tail.” The villagers are returning home with heavy loads of meat ; but nobody wants to share with the mangy boy, and he is scoffed a t and beaten everywhere. A t last the Outer Being I takes compassion on him, and some unknown people give him three small scraps of whale-meat, enjoining upon him to put them into one of his mittens, and then, on coming home, to put these three pieces in three underground larders. After a while the larders are filled with meat. Then the grandmother sends him to seek a bride. He goes from one village to another, but everywhere is rejected with derision and scorn. He comes back, and the Outer Being commands him to run around his house. Gradually the soil is mellowed and he sinks into it, at first knee-deep, then thigh-deep, then to the navel, and so on. His body becomes clean and strong, and he is transformed into a well-shaped young man, the best hunter of the village. Out of the ground appear three large bags filled with choicest clothing, costly furs, and other riches. He takes for wife the prettiest girl of the neighborhood. The girls who rejected him now want to have him for their husband. But now he rejects them. The neighbors crowd around him, saying, “You are my nephew, you are my cousin,” but he beats them and retorts, ‘‘ Even so you have beaten and ill-treated me ! ’’ Finally he leaves the village and settles in another place. The villagers are unsuccessful in their hunting, and are swept away by famine.P

There is also another somewhat similar one, about a small seal that went seeking a wife, but was rejected and ill-treated everywhere.

This tale is widely spread among the Chukchee.

See antea, p. 587. Chukchee Materials, p. 116. Compare Rink, loc. cit., “ Kagsagsuk,” p. 93 ;

and Boas, CentrnZ Eskimo, “ Qaudjaqdjuq,” p. 630.

BOGORAS] THE FOLKLORE OF NOTRHEASTERN ASIA 6 2 I

Some young girls maltreated him, cutting his back and putting burning coals under his skin. At last one girl felt compassion and took him for her husband. In the night he turned into a handsome man and caused a large reindeer-herd to appear a t his bride’s house. Finally all the women who formerly had ill- treated him wanted to have him, but he struck and rejected them all.’

12. After a great famine there were left in a village only a little boy and his sister. H e made a small bow and the sister made a drum. H e began shooting and she beat the drum, Next morning he killed a mosquito. She went on drumming. On the next day he killed a gadfly ; and on the third day he shot a small bird, which they roasted and ate. On the fourth day he killed a wild duck, which they also roasted and ate. After a while he grew u p ; then he killed a reindeer, then an elk, and he went on killing every kind of big land and water game,-bears, walruses, seals, and wolverines. After some adventures he went traveling and saw a large dwelling cut out of solid rock. He entered through the vent-hole and saw a giant-woman busy around the hearth. T h e pot was on the hook, but no meat was to be seen. T h e house was full of children who kept crying and asking their mother for food. W e shall taste this man’s liver! ” She spat o n the opening and made the rock shut. Then she sharpened her carving knife. She cried, “ Come here ! I will skin you!” She got angry and flung the knife a t his head. H e had on his magic head-band with small manikins carved out of wood. T h e knife struck one of them and cut off his head. Then the guest caught the knife, flung it a t the woman, and cut off her right hand. Next she threw it a t him with her left hand, and again struck a wooden manikin. Then the guest threw back the knife and cut

They had nothing to eat.

Next he shot a hare, then a fox.

She said, “ Wait a little!

“ I will not ! ” answered the man.

Chukrhrc Materin2.f. p. 283.

62 2 AMERlCAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [N. s., 4, 1902

off her left hand. The third time she flung the knife with her teeth, and, when throwing it back, the man cut off her head. After various adventures he came to the land of darkness, where he visited another giant-woman, with whom he had a contest. Without a single word she caught him, chopped him to pieces, and put him into her pot. I n due time she took out the boiled meat and carried it in a tray to her sleeping-room. Behold ! there the guest sat on a skin that was spread out on the floor. She caught him again, put him on a pile of wood, and burned him to ashes ; but when she entered her sleeping-room, she found him again sitting on the skins. She caught him a third time, took him outdoors to her larder, and drew out the skin stopper. In the bottom of the larder was fastened a kdkdog that she fed only twice a year. She put the man into the larder and refast- ened the stopper. Out of the pit there was heard a noise,-a grunting, a grinding of teeth, and a snapping of the mouth. But when she reached her sleeping-room, she found the stranger again sitting on the skins. Then she lost patience, put him out of the house, and shut the entrance; but at midnight he came back, mounted the roof, and through the vent-hole stole her heart and intestines out of her body. The next morning she felt uneasy on account of the absence of these organs, and had to acknowledge his victory; but the man refused to return her intestines unless she consented to marry him.

Some parts of this tale recall the Eskimo tale of “ Kiviuq ” ; but the pernicious old woman appears in many other combinations, in Asia as well as in northwestern America. In one of the versions belonging to the Chukchee of Anadyr, the man is invited to enter the house by a young woman who wants to have him for a husband. But when they lie down, he sees something glistening in the dark, and discovers an old hag approaching noiselessly with a knife in her hand. She is his new wife’s mother, who pro- cures food by killing strangers. The young woman assures him that it is a dream. Finally he kills both with their own knife and

BOGORAS] T H E FOLKLORE OF NORTHEASTEKN A S I A 62 3

escapes. This story resembles the Kiviuk story more closely than the former version.

In a Chukchee tale, two children carried away by a cannibal escape through a hole in the roof. T h e sister first helps the brother through, then follows herself.’

In a Koryak tale the she-giant carries away children in a basket, alluring them with toys ; then she eats them. War- riors are seen afar in white armor. A boy and a girl who are still alive begin t o sing, “There come white armor-clad men t o look for us ! ” Several times the giantess asks what they sing ; but they elude her watchfulness and are carried away by the men.’

In a tale of Russianized natives of Anadyr, probably of Chu- vantzy stock, which is curious because of the remnants of some unknown words inserted as a song, a.nd quite incomprehensible at present t o the people, a giant woman comes to the dwelling of a human couple. She is called by the North Siberian (Russian) name Yagirna, which is derived from Baba- Yaga (“ grandmother Yaga ”), a well-known name in Russian tales, and perhaps an ancient Slavic female deity. Yaglsma signifies in Russian “ Yaga’s daughter.” Yagfsma of Anadyr, approaching the threshold of the human dwelling, begins to sing, probably in the Chuvantzy language, “ Ke, fie, Ke ! &wzzlna’a galzindn, bn‘tkinn dkka, &zu’nda ritdka ! ” T h e owner of the house is so lazy that he always lies on his bed. On the arrival of Yagis-na, his wife induces him t o arise. H e seizes his bow and begins to shoot a t the giantess. His arrows, however, fall down without piercing her hard skin. She continues to sing, “Ke, he, k e ! 2omnu’nda gaZu’nda, bdtkina ZdZik, ZoomJnda rindlik! ” By the advice of his wife the man takes aim a t her buttocks. The arrow enters her anus and comes out of her mouth, thus killing her. They are unable to cut up her body, and finally burn it on a pile of wood. Then they follow

13,

I Compare Boas, Eskimo of Bas. Land, Mangegjatuakdju, p. 189. Compare Boas, Zdianische Sugen, K’Blk.alo-itl. p. 57, and several others.

624 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [N. s . , 4, 1902

her tracks and come to a large house, but at first find no one inside, until the man stumbles over a huge dish which is lying bottom upward on the floor. A number of the giantess’s children jump out, exclaiming in the same unknown language, Mama ta kake;d, mama ta vake&/ ” The assailants slay the children, burn the house, and take home all the goods of the giantess.

The last three tales recall the Indian tale of I‘ Sneneiq.” It is remarkable that, while most of the Chukchee tales of the giant- woman are more or less related to Eskimo tales, those of the Koryak and of the Chuvantzy (belonging to the Yukaghir stock) should bear resemblance to those of the Indian. In the third part of this paper I shall refer to similar instances.

14. Some details of the Kiviuq tale, besides those mentioned, appear in many other tales of the west coast of Bering sea. The incident of the old woman who, pretending to louse her daughter, kills her by driving a peg through her ear, and then puts on her skin, is found in Asia. For instance, in a Chukchee tale, a woman abandoned by her husband for the sake of the “ girl of the mountain voice” (echo) finds her rival, offers to louse her, and, after lulling her to sleep, pours into her ear some boiling broth of reindeer kidneys.’

Other episodes of this tale closely resemble the Takuka tale of the Alaskan Eskimo.’ The false husband is considered dead by his wife. For a long time she painfully supports her children by gathering roots. Then she finds, by accident, her rival’s house, and, after killing her with broth, puts her body on the cliff in a position as though she were living, and goes home. The husband, returning with his catch, scolds his wife for not coming to help him, but soon discovers that she is dead. H e guesses what has happened, and sets out to take vengeance. The woman, when attacked with a spear, suddenly turns into a bear, breaks the spear, and kills the man. She comes to the house to look at her

I Chukchee Materials, p. 258. Nelson, loc. cit., p. 467.

BOGORAS] THE FOLh7LOKE OF NOR THEASTERN ASIA 625 I

children, but they are frightened and run away. One becomes a wolverine, another a fox, the third one a wild duck, the fourth a snow-bunting. Among the Asiatic Eskimo I collected another version resembling still more closely the Alaskan tale.

In another tale collected among the Chukchee, but probably of Koryak origin, the Black-beetle-woman, pretending to guard her female companion from an attempt at abduction, kills her, puts on her skin, and marries the Sun, but finally is discovered by the S u n and burnt to death.'

15. In several Chukchee tales, as well as in the Eskimo tale of " Kiviuk," the hero, on his return home, is startled to find his small child grown up and become a great hunter. In one Chuk- chee tale the hero and his brother come back to their village, and, meeting two gray-haired old men, begin to inquire about their children. After a while they begin to understand that these men are their children, and immediately fall to the ground sense- less. Two wagtails fly away from their bodies, and nothing remains but a little dust.'

16. A mother went to sleep in the outer tent with her infant. The child began to cry, but the mother slept so soundly that she did not hear it. The child continued to cry. His voice grew stronger, and he was gradually transformed into a Ke'CE, who de- voured his mother. He wanted to devour all the other inmates of the tent ; but they fled in time, leaving all their goods behind.'

In a version of this tale collected among the Russianized Yukaghir of Kolyma, three sisters, who wish to have a child, find among the rocks a stone similar to a human form. They take it home, lay it in a cradle, and in a short time it becomes a real child. They are good hunters, and their storehouse is filled with dried reindeer-meat. In the morning, when they go away hunting, the stone-child rises o u t of the cradle with the incantation,

1 Chukrhee Materials, p. 176.

'Ibid., p. 2 7 ; Rink, loc. cii., p. 258. Ibid., p. 188.

AM. ANTH., N. S.. 4-40

626 A MERlCAN ANTHROPOLOGZST I N. s., 4, 1902

" Chumo, chumo! He becomes a giant, and eats all the meat and fat. Finally the sisters discover who devours their stores, and they hurry away from the monster. The giant-infant gives pursuit, but, after the three well-known episodes of the magic flight, is drowned in a fiery river. The girls come to a real river and want to cross it. Seeing on the other side an old hag, they ask her assistance, and, on their promise t o give her their ear-rings, the old woman stretches her right leg across, and the girls cross upon it as upon a bridge.'

In a Yukaghir version, a child-monster has long iron teeth. The inmates of the house escape to the high storage platform which stands on four solid wooden supports. The child-monster begins to gnaw these supports and succeeds in breaking them down. I n other tales they are turned into iron through a magic incantation of one of the men who had escaped to the platform. The supernatural being, suddenly transformed from the simple human form, having long iron teeth and using them to gnaw at the supports of the platform to which his former housemates have escaped, is a peculiar figure of Yukaghir folklore, and frequently appears in Russian tales from the Kolyma, which are influenced by native tradition. I t is also mentioned in one Koryak tale, but I do not remember to have heard of it among the Chukchee.

I 7. The magic flight deals usually with three magic objects : a comb, which is transformed into a forest ; a small stone, which is transformed into a mountain ; and an object connected with fire, -for instance, the steel of a strike-a.light,-which is transformed into a river of fire. All of these not only occur frequently in Chukchee traditions, but are even used as charms in funerals; when mountains are raised from little stones, and deep rivers

Boas, Chinook Texts, Bulletin Bureau of Ethnology, p. 32 ; Boas, KulAZamet Texts, ibid., 124 ; L. Farrand, Traditions of the Quinault Inu'ians, Memoirs American Museum of Natural History, IV, p. 120; R. B. Dixon, Mddu M y t h , Bulletin American Museum of Natural History, XV, p. 80; J. Curtin, Creation Myths of Priniitive America, p. 450.

May you grow big! "

BOGORAS] THE FOLKLORE OF NOKTHEASTERN ASIA 627

spurt from lines drawn on the ground with a stick in order to prevent the deceased from coming back.’

The Sedna myth ’ does not appear in its complete form in t h e Chukchee tradition ; but one of the most widely known episodes of the Raven myth of the Chukchee is often connected with incidents resembling some parts of the tale of “Sedna.” The Raven wants to obtain the sun, which is in possession of a kP& H e goes to a distant country and finds a house which swings to and fro. He enjoins upon it to become steady, and waits outside. In the house, sun, moon, and stars are kept sewed up in black walrus-hide, like large balls. T h e young daughter of the k P h goes out, and is induced by the Raven to tease her parents for the sun-ball. The girl asks for i t ; but her father gives her the ball of the stars instead. She plays with it, and, when she throws it t o the Raven, he contrives to toss it upward with such strength that it bursts, and the stars fly out and stick t o the sky. In a similar way he succeeds in freeing the moon, and finally the sun. After that the father becomes angry with his daughter, and he takes her and hangs her, head downward, from a steep cliff. She drops into the water, and turns into a walrus, whose tusks are formed of the mucus that ran from her nose when she was weeping.

I n another version she is thrown overboard from a boat and tries to catch the prow, but her father chops off her fingers. Then she sinks into the water and turns into a walrus, the tusks being formed of her braided hair. Ultimately she upsets the boat and drowns her father.

Among the Eskimo, Sedna is believed to rule the depths of the sea. The Maritime Chukchee believe that on the bottom of the sea lives an old woman, with a walrus-head and two large tusks, who is the owner and the ruler of the sea-game. In recent years

18.

At last the line snaps.

For magic flight, compare Boas, Central’ EssRimo, p. 619; E&mo of Basvz Land, p. 177 ; and Indianische Sagen, p. 356, No. 5 5 .

See Boas, EsRi77zo of Baf in Land, pp, 110, 163.

628 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [N. s., 4, 1902

one of her tusks has broken in the middle; for this reason her temper has grown worse, and year by year less game is allowed to come to the surface. Nothing, however, is known about the relations existing between this “mother of the walrus” and the kdE’s daughter of the preceding tale.

The father of Sedna, who is believed to be a small man,’ bears resemblance to the deity of land-game of the West Bering Sea tribes, which iscalled “PiEvdIn ” by the Chukchee and the Koryak, and ‘‘ Pildhlu; ” by the Kamchadale. He is a dwarf, not larger than a man’s finger, though endowed with the strength of a giant. He drives a small sledge of grass with a team of mice ; sometimes he himself has the shape of a mouse, and his reindeer is the small edible root of PoZygoolaum viv$arum. I n Kamcha- dale tales he is Kutq’s son-in-law. Pi&& is the owner of all foxes, wolves, and especially of all kinds of wild reindeer, and is usually kind to men, and sends them some of his game. But the slightest neglect of the proscribed hunting customs is apt to anger him, and he withhoids the supply.

The idea that thunder is produced by girls playing above on a spread sealskin, and that rain is the urine of one of them, is well known to the Chukchee ; but it seems to me to be borrowed from the Asiatic Eskimo, who have a tale on this subject.’ I n one Chukchee taie the lightning is a one-sided man who drags his one-sided sister along by her foot. She is intoxicated with fly- agaric. The rattling of her back is thunder, her urine is rain. . . . The winds have a mistress, an old woman who lives on the northern border of the sky. She makes snow-squalls by shoveling the snow from her own dwelling.

Some of the tales from Baffinland are related to various episodes of the versions of the Raven myth from the west coast of Bering sea. In one Chukchee tale, the Raven, who wants t o travel t o the Land of the Winds, leaves the sleeping-room and

19.

20.

Boas, Eskimo of Bafln Land, p. 163 ; Central Esfiinio, p. 586. J Compare Boas, Eskimo of Bafin Land, p. 175.

BOGORAS] THE FOLKLORE OF NORTHEASTBRN ASIA 629

calls for dogs to come. Two reindeer come, but he says, “ G o away ! I don’t want you ! ” After that polar bears, wolves, and elks come, but are sent away by him. Then two small white foxes come, and are put into harness.’ In the Baffinland tale, many foxes are induced to come into the house, where they are finally slain and skinned. The same incident occurs in several tales of the Chukchee, Yukaghir, and Koryak.

In a Koryak tale the Whitewhale-man, Sisfsan,’ goes with his sister RCra to hunt reindeer. They find one ; but Sisisan’s arroivs are too short. He is afraid that if he should use them, the agony of the reindeer might be so prolonged as to cause it to lose its fat. But, when longer arrows are fetched from the house the reindeer is gone. Then they find a river, and Sisisan, using his sister’s breeches as a seine, catches a great many fish. After a while RCra and YifiCa-flCut ’ go out to dig roots. They find a house in the country and enter it. It is the house of the foxes, and RCra is married to the Fox-man, who is clad in a long red overcoat. The bear, who is in the foxes’ house, embraces YiflCa-flCut, and presses her so hard that she breaks wind. RCra bears first two fox-pups, then thirty more, then sixty, then a countless quantity. After a while the whole clan of foxes go to visit Kutq’s family. Sisisan welcomes them, but they are so many that the house is entirely filled with them. He treats them to some fish ; but all his stores prove insufficient to supply even a single fish to each fox. In the night the hungry foxes gnaw off several people’s noses and ears, and also Sisisan’s penis. But he cures the wounds by applying a little seal-oil, kills all the foxes, and fills two store- houses with their skins.

I n a widely known Chukchee tale, the Raven wants to feed visitors. What he brings is really only the half-rotten body of a dead pup. Then

21.

He sends his son to bring some game.

Compare Boas, Eskimo of Bafin Land, p. 21 j . See p. 638.

8 Ibid.

630 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGI SP' [N. s., 4, 1902

he sends his son for some food that is more slippery, and the boy brings some fresh excrements. After that the visitors go away in wrath, and the Raven consumes everything himself.'

22. I n a Koryak tale a Fox-woman marries a Raven-man. He complains of her bad smell. She becomes offended, and goes away into the open country. He follows her, and after much trouble finds her in a hole in the ground, where she has given birth to a pup. Then they become reconciled, and agree to live t6gether in the underground house.'

In a Kamchadale taIe the Raven's wife, Miti, sits down before the window to mend her coat, but the window is darkened by some mice which drive by in sledges. Miti, supposing her nose to be in the way of the light, cuts it off, then disposes of her lips and cheeks in the same manner.' Later on I shaIl refer to these episodes more fully.

The reindeer proposed a pulling-match to the walrus (in another version to the thong-seal). " I shall certainly drag you into the water," boasted the walrus. " Try and see," answered the reindeer. They tied a strong rope around their waists and began to pull. The reindeer proved stronger, and dragged the walrus far away into the country.'

An old woman lived with her niece, and wanted to have some fun with her. So she split her stone-hammer in two, making for herself, of the two halves of stone, and of the wooden handle, the private parts of a man. She pretended to be a man, and came to court the young woman; but when they lay down, the young woman felt of her husband's legs and discovered the deceit.'

I n one of the episodes of the Raven myth, the Raven pretends

Compare Boas, Eskimo of b'a& Land, " The Raven and the Gull," p. 216. Ibid., p. 225.

Compare Boas, Eskimo o f Bafln Land, " The Bear and the Caribou," p. 220.

Ibid., Eskimo o f Bafin Land, No. 54, p. 248, and No. 24. p. 324; compare.

23.

24.

25.

a Ibid., p. 193 ; Central Eskimo, p. 624. *

also, lna'annische S f l ~ w t . etc., p. 28.

BOGORAS] THE FOLKLORE OF NOR T H E A S TERN A SZA 63 I

to be a woman, transforming his penis into a needlecase, and the pubis into needles. Then he marries a Reindeer Chukchee man. Such transformations are not so surprising to a native mind in the land where male and female shamans, by request of their spirits, take up the mode of life of the opposite sex, and even go so far as to practise sodomy and to exhibit other forms of sexual perversion.

26. Two ukkdmaks (wooden amulets rudeIy shaped like human figures) turned themselves into men and visited a camp where a ceremony was being held. They entered the poorest tent, where an old man with his wife wailed in a song over the loss of their only son. Their song was so attractive that all the people from the other tents came to listen. Some mounted the roof; others made holes in the tent- covering and peeped in. They saw how the antlers of the sacrificed reindeer transformed themselves into a large buck, and walked around the hearth. Finally the roof gave in, and the people fell down and crushed the singers, who a t once assumed their original shape.’

Several tales of the Chukchee treat of the ancient tribes who lived on the shores, but were obliged to withdraw. In the arctic tale about Krk’qay’s flight, which is referred to also by Wrangell, these people are described as real men who fled across the sea t o some unknown land in order t o escape the vengeance of their neighbors.

In other tales they are k&t, who lived visibly on the earth, were of large stature, but of inferior material culture. After a long war they were vanquished by the Chukchee, and then with- drew to the land of spirits and became invisible.

The American Eskimo have similar stories about the so-called “Tornit.” It is curious that some of the traits of Tornit culture, as described by the Central Eskimo, actually occur among the Chukchee on the Asiatic shore. I will give a few examples:

The visitors began to sing together.

27.

Compare Rink, loc. cit., p. 219.

632 AMERICA N A N THROPOLOGlS T [N. s., 4, 1902

( I ) The Maritime Chukchee and, following their example, the Asiatic Eskimo, are fond of athletic exercises, among which the carrying of large stones is a favorite one. Young men own long round stones which are picked out and kept for this purpose. (2)

The heavy winter coat of the Chukchee reaches to the knee and is so wide that a man can easily pull both arms out of the sleeves, and then turn quite freely under the coat. (3) They do not build any snow-houses, but in olden times lived in underground dwellings, the roofs of which were supported by whale- ribs.’ (4) The skin of the polar bear and half of the whalebone of a whale drifted ashore belong to the person who discovered them. The Eskimo say that this is the custom of the Tornit.’ ( 5 ) When killing a seal in its breathing-hole they whisper, ‘‘gzk, gIk, gzk / kzrAd-takdZhm qa3Btwkun ! ” (“ Ah, ah, ah ! Call here your elder companion!”) The Tornit whispered, “ I shall stab it.”a To be sure, all these coincidences are trifling; but, nevertheless, I thought it worth while to mention them here.

28. Another Chukchee tradition refers to the so-called “ Stealthily-walking-around-people,” otherwise called “Twilight Lamut.” Long ago these were also driven across the sea, but they continue to come back and walk about at night time. From time to time a Chukchee hunter may have a chance t o shoot one of them, when they are “ seen against the sunset.” Their bodies are quite ordinary, except that the feet are uncom- monly large and have webbed toes. They are excellent swim- mers, and, when cornered by men, jump into the foaming sea from a high cliff and swim off to another shore. This tradition somewhat recalls to mind the Kalopalit of the Central Eskimo,’ with their large feet and their great skill in swimming.

In a tale of the Russianized natives of Kolyma, a grand- 29.

For similar details in the description of Tornit, see Boas, Crntrnl Eskimo, P. 634.

4 Boas, E ~ k i m o o f Ba@n Land, p. Z I I , footnote. a Boas, The Centrnl Eskimo. p. 635.

Ibid.

BOGORAS] T H E FOLKLORE OF NORTHEASTERN ASIA 63 3

mother, angered at the disobedience of her grandson, requests Owner-of-the-forest to take him. The spirit appears immediately and carries away the boy.’ The inhabitants of the village vainly endeavor to recover the boy. After many years he makes his .escape by means of charmed boots, which he steals from Owner- of-the-forest. They are made of the thick white skin of Master- of-the-river. Owner-of-the-forest, whenever he needs this kind of skin, hunts Master-of-the-river with the harpoon. When he has killed him, he immediately flays him. Master-of-the-river, on his part, catches by his feet Owner-of-the-forest and any members af his family, when they are crossing rivers on the ice, and drags them down. The boots made of the skin of Master-of-the-river make four miles at every step, and therefore are called “ fourfold lboots. ”

A bear tale found among the Chukchee and Russianized natives of Anadyr resembles Nelson’s ‘‘ History of the Giant.”’ The bear gives protection to a woman who is driven from her home. He makes her a present of a number of ear and nose tips c u t from various skins, and sends her back to her husband. She produces the gift, and the bits of skins are transformed into handsome peItries. Her husband immediately restores her to her former position and turns out her rival. He calls together all the men of the village and gives presents to them. They live rich and happy ever after.

31. The following story seems to me without analogue in America, but may have a historical background based on trading expeditions to the arctic coast of America. A man wanders away over the sea-ice and finds a snow-dwelling of a Polar-bear- woman, whom he marries. He takes her hope. After a while she quarrels with her mother-in-law and leaves, going wi th her child to her own country. When she reaches open water, she puts the child in one leg of her breeches and crosses over. The

30.

’ Compare Boas, Central Eskimo, p. 620. LOC. cit., p. 471.

634 AMERICAN ANTHh’OPOLOGlSZ’ [N. s . , 4, 1902

man starts in search of his wife, wanders across the sea-ice, and finally reaches the country of the polar bears. There he is reconciled to his wife, but has to fight a number of matches with a giant monster-bear, Ko&tko.’ They play ball with a walrus- head, which comes to life when tossed, and kills everybody who tries to catch it. The next day they slide from an iceberg and plunge into the water to bring up a stone from the bottom. The hero succeeds, taking an occasional breath through the blowing- hole of a seal. The bears kill seal and walrus; but a small lemming is considered by them a dreadful monster, and the hero wins much applause in killing two lemmings with a mitten. After his triumph over Ko&tko, the hero lives with the bears for many years, but finally, by accident, kills one of his brothers-in- law. Then his wife suggests immediate flight, and offers to take him across the sea. When they reach the open water, she puts him into a leg of her breeches and carries him across. These large breeches of the Polar-bear-woman remind us of the hoop- trousers of the Eskimo women in Hudson strait that were formerly in use and in which their children were really carried.’

The polar-bear country calls to mind another Chukchee tale, where, among other strange people living on the shores of KfImIn (America), are described large-sized polar bears with human faces. They are said to be friendly to traders ; and a good fox-skin may be bought from them for one pipeful of tobacco. This description seems to relate to bearskin-clad Central Eskimo, whose country the Russian leaf-tobacco reached more than a century ago. I n the beginning it brought fabulous prices and was always coveted by the natives.

There are 8 number of Chukchee beliefs and customs more or less analogous to those of the Eskimo. The aurora borealis is believed to be a special world, inhabited by those who died by violence. The red glare is their spilled blood, and the changing

32.

’ See p. 579. Boas, EsRivzo of Bafln Land, p. 356.

BOGORAS] THE FOLKLORE OF NOR THEA STEKN ASIA 63 5

rays are deceased souls playing ball with a walrus-head.’ Inci- dentally I will mention a curious belief connected with the aurora borealis: I t is said that there is a large worm somewhere near the village of “ the upper people.” This worm is striped with red and is so large that it attacks large game. When hungry, i t is very active ; it will spring from ambush upon a wild reindeer, and will kill it by the pressure of its coils. It gulps its prey without chew- ing, since it has no teeth. After taking a meal it becomes motionless and sleeps for several days on the same spot; the children of the dead cannot rouse it, even by pelting it with stones. This is a very accurate description of a boa constrictor. The belief is apparently of ancient origin, because the monster is placed in the sky with the souls of the deceased. I n northeastern Siberia no snakes are found, and it would seem, therefore, that this tale points southward to regions where large snakes live.

Head-lifting is one of the chief divining methods, not less among the Chukchee than among the American Eskimo. I t is used for discovering a cure for sickness. It is employed on dead bodies for determining the details of ’the burial ceremony. It is also practised on anybody who wishes to learn about the future. Divining with a suspended object which is lifted, and the apparent weight or motion of which gives the desired answer, is also practised. The new-born child is believed to be some ancestor come back to earth. Its name is found by asking the suspended divining-stone all the names of the preceding generation, in turn.

The idea of the return of the dead i n ncw-born children is so strong in the Chukchee mind that half of the proper names have relation to it ; for instance, Pt‘Zqmztz (“ returned ”), Pmelqdt (“ the former one rising ”1, NutaZqdt (“ rising on the field ”), etc.

People who make themselves obnoxious are killed by their relatives by common consent. Flesh from a corpse is supposed t o be deadly poisonous, and preeminently fit for the most dangerous

Rink, p. 37; Boas, Eskimo of Ra8n Land, p. 146; Nelson, op. cit., p. 336.

*

636 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIS 7 ' [N. s., 4, 1902

charms. The company of dogs is thought t o be the best pre- servative against evil charms and spirits. Artificial animals are sent to kill enemies; for instance, WAal, on the Kolyma tundra, told me, with all details, how his own brother was killed by an artificial wild reindeer-buck which was sent against him in the early fall, and allured him to the bare ice on the lake, where he fell and broke his neck.' The skins of birds and of small mammals are used as protecting amulets for men and things, and are sewed to the objects to be protected? A sick person can be cured by placing the aching part inside the belly of a reindeer; in an illness that is not localized, the entrails are pulled out of the reindeer, so that they form a loop through which the sick person must step.' In the other world is a land of dogs, which is passed by the soul before it reaches the land of the shades. Whoever beats the dogs on this earth will be attacked and severely bitten by the dogs there.4

III.-COMPARISON BETWEEN THE FOLKLORE OF NORTHEASTERN SIBERIA AND THAT OF THE INDIANS OF THE NORTH PACIFIC COAST.

If one part of the West Bering folklore presents a striking resemblance to Eskimo traditions, another part is related to the Indian lore of the North Pacific coast, chiefly in the general character and construction of the tales, but also in several details. Most important is the occurrence of the Raven myth, which, on the Asiatic side, is not less prominent than on the American side, although there are many curious differences in its episodes.

The mythical name of the Raven is essentially the same in Chukchee, Koryak, and Kamchadale, except for certain phonetic

~~

Chukchee Materials, p. 24. * For the Eskimo analogue of all these customs and beliefs, see Boas, EsRirno

' Compare Rink, loc. cit., p. 226

of Batfin Land, pp. 363. 364.

Compare Nelson, loc. cit., p. 488.

BOGORAS] THE FOLKLORE OF Noh’ TUEASTERN ASIA 63 7

changes characteristic of these dialects. The Kamchadale form seems to be the oldest, as the Kamchadale generally must be considered to be the oldest branch of this group of languages. The Raven’s name is Kzctq in Kamchadale; K d t q ~ , Kzltqp, KdsqzZ, K~sQ/Y, in the southeastern Koryak ; Kd-vk/Y or Qdykzy in the northwestern Koryak; and K d r k ~ l i n Chukchee. In Koryak it is employed coinmonly in its augmentative form, Kutqlhaku, Kusqhnaku, Kuykhnaku (Big KGtqI). The character of the Raven is essentially the same as on the American side. He is the transformer, but not the creator, of the world. He brings light and fresh water, and teaches the human race the ways of earthly life, from copulation to the making of nets. At the same time he is the common laughing-stock, foolish and dirty, perpetrator of many misdeeds, and the object of various tricks. In several episodes of the myth his supernatural qualities are more or less skilfully blended with his ordinary features and faculties as a real bird, eating carrion and always hungry. These episodes frequently have obscene and dirty details, just as do those of North America. Some of the American episodes of the Raven tale reappear on Asiatic soil ; others are peculiar to Asia, though quite similar to the rest in character and composition. Many of them are common to most of the Asiatic Bering sea tribes.

Among the Chukchee, notwithstanding the large number of Raven stories, they do not appear to be very prominent among the whole mass of traditions, since a large part of their folklore bears resemblance to that of the Eskimo. Another still larger part is epic, and relates to wars with neighboring tribes, while many other tales treat of separate subjects not connected with any of those mentioned above.

Among the Koryak, on the contrary, the Raven myth has a much greater importance. Kuykfnnaku is a deity, and by older travelers that name was translated simply “God.” He is

638 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [N. S . , 4, I902

connected with almost every tale, and, even when it treats of a subject without any relation to the Raven myth, his name, at least, is mentioned in the beginning. I n some Koryak tales, Kuykfnnaku preserves the characteristics of the Raven as clearly as the Chukchee Kdrkd. In others, however, he has more or less lost them. H e is the transformer of the world, the ancestor of mankind, the teacher of various pursuits, who, after making mankind fit to support themselves, goes away to another country or else turns into stone.

The Chukchee tradition knows also the name of Miti or Miti-fle (fie being abbreviated from fi&, “ woman ”1, the Raven’s wife. The Koryak, besides these two names, knows their son, EmCm- kut ; two daughters, Yifiia-flCut and CafiAi ; Ememkut’s wife, K116 ; in northern Kamchatka also Miti’s brother, SisIsan (the Whitewhale-man). Other sons of Raven and Miti are KIgIgIif- flaku, KuthAnu, KItfynaku, VBla, MIlpdtayan, their nephew ‘fila, etc. Names of Kutq’s family appear also among the Koryak names of the constellations. Corona borealis is KI16’s boot. Names of stars in the Pleiades are given, Yiflfa-flCut and Canhi, etc.

The Kamchadale tradition probably was closely allied to that of the Maritime Koryak of Kamchatka, since all the ways and habits of life were alike among these two tribes. Their chief difference lay in their languages. Unfortunately most of the Kamchadale folklore is lost. Steller, i n his description of Kam- chatka, gives a few stories of Kutq. Those that he gives in extenso are still known to the natives. Others, very important ones, are only briefly mentioned. Both he and Krasheninikoff say that the Kamchadale Kutq stories were numerous, and strongly imbued with the ribald character which is typical of the Raven myth. Steller gives Xaxi as the name of the Raven’s wife, and Deselkut as that of their son.’ The latter name sounds

it

V

_ _ _ ~

’ Steller, Beschreidung a’?s Lana’es Knntchatkn, p. 254.


almost like a Koryak word. Krasheninikoff gives the following list of names of Kutq’s family, probably more or less distorted by mispronunciation: Kutq’s wife, I lkxum; one of his sons, Symskalin ; another Tizil-Kutq ; his daughter, Siduka ; his grandson, Amleya ; his granddaughter, Sidukamshich, etc.’ Of all these, I could find among the Kamchadale only the name of 6ijil Kutq. All others are changed for Koryak names, as mentioned above, probably because, among the Koryak of Kamchatka, the old tradition remained alive longer than among the Kamcha- dale, who were entirely Russianized. From Steller’s and Krashe- ninikoff’s remarks, and from the fragments of tales still existing, we may conclude that Kutq was believed to have founded the settlements on all the rivers of Kamchatka in succession. After finishing his work he went away (Steller says, t o the land of the Koryak and of the Chukchee), or was transformed into stone, together with his house, boat, and family. I n several places in Kamchatka, as well as in Penshina bay and Gishiga bay, t he Kam- chadale and the Koryak point out the mountain summits which are supposed t o be these transformed houses and personages.

I will now give some of the most characteristic episodes of the Raven myth in Asia. I will give those common t o Asia and America first ; but it seems desirable t o add others which illus- trate the general similarities of style, although the component incidents seem to be quite different.

There are quite a number of tales connected with the creation of the world, its transformation by the Raven, and the subsequent freeing of sources of light from the ~ ~ Z E ’ S dominion.’

I . The most important incidents of the creation myth are as follows :

T h e Creator sits in darkness and deliberates how to obtain ~ _ _ _

Krasheninikoff, Description of the Land Kanzchatka (in Russian), vol. 11,

Chukchv Materials, Nos. 49-61, pp. 158-175. pp. 100-106.

640 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGlST [N. s., 4, 1902

light. Two countries, LdEren and KCfiiEvun, are in existence. One of these is assigned to Reindeer people, the other to Mari- time people.

In another version the Creator makes these countries in the form of large islands, then hurls them downward. Both names occur as those of Chukchee villages : the former on the Pacific, the latter on the Arctic shore. Moreover, KCfliEvun signifies in Chuk- chee I ‘ a curve.”

Then the Creator makes the Raven, and bids him obtain the light. The tradition is emphatic on the point that the Raven has been created. There is a tale in which he declares he has not been created, and another in which it is told how he is punished by the Creator for insolence. In some versions the Creator forgets or omits to create the Raven, who creates himself from an old fur coat left on a camp-site, and afterward proclaims himself independent, I n shamanistic incantations the Raven is sometimes called, in accordance with this tale, “ the outer garment of the Creator.” The Raven gathers (in other versions creates) various birds. They fly off toward the dawn and try to pierce the stone wall of the day with their beaks. The partridge breaks a part of hers, and therefore has a very short beak now. The Wagtail is so worn out by fatigue that his body shrinks, and he begins t o shake as.he does now. At last one of the three birds (Raven in one version, Wagtail in another) succeeds in making a small hole, and the dawn passes through. The Creator drops some seal- bones on the land of LtIEren, and they become the first man and woman. In a similar manner a few reindeer-bones are transformed into the first human pair in KCflirvun land. The Creator wants to get news of them and sends, in turn, the wolf, the fox, and the bear; but none of these succeeds in reaching them. They are cursed by the Creator and flung far away into the world. The cursing of various birds and beasts, and the flinging of them into the world, is repeated in several versions. In some cases the Raven is the performer of this act. In other versions, on the con-

BOGORAS] THE FOLKLORE OF NORTHEASTEh’N ASIA 64 I

trary, he is cursed and punished by the Creator together with the other animals.

Finally the Creator himself goes and finds the human couple. They are naked and half-witted, and stand or lie motionless on the ground. H e starts t o teach them how to eat and to drink, how to carve with the knife, and even how to defecate. Finally he orders them to lie down, covers them with a skin blanket, and teaches them how to copulate. Then he brings reindeer, makes a fire-drill and gets fire from it. H e instructs the reindeer-people to be nomads, and the dwellers of the sea-coast to hunt the seal. Finally the fire-drill is forgotten on a camping- place, and transforms itself, of its own volition, into a Russian.

In one very curious version of the legend, the Raven creates himself from nothing, and calls himself “ self-created.” H e tries to create men, but fails. T o his amazement he sees her assuming the shape of a woman who becomes pregnant, and, while still asleep, gives birth to several boys, When the boys see the Raven, they begin to inquire about him, and, hearing that he is their father, begin to mock him and to pelt him with mud. The Raven flies away to search for other people, and finds a tent full of men on the border-line between earth and sky. They assert that they have been created from the fragments produced by the friction of the sky against the earth. The Raven flies away and makes islands and continents by defecating in his flight. He creates lakes and rivers from drops of his water. Then he finds every kind of wood, chops it with an adze, and from the chips creates game, fish, sea mammals, etc. Woman, however, has not been created yet. A small Spider-woman, K6r- gu-flCut, descends on a spider’s thread. Her womb swells up, and, bursting, lets out four girls. The men of the sky-border carry them away and want t o marry them, but do not know how to copulate. A t night the Raven ‘instructs the Spider-woman, and, in doing so, he bruises her hands and shoulders with his beak. Then she instructs mankind.

His wife lies down to sleep.

AM. ANTH., N. S., 4-41.

642 AMh RICA N ANTHROPOLOGIST “. s., 4. 1902

In another tale the Creator and the Raven try to make man of soft clay. The Creator clothes his men in leaves, which he pounds with mud, and is ridiculed by the Raven, who clothes in grass the men made by himself. This episode probably is borrowed from the Yakut, and repeats the well-known dualistic myth of the Old World.’ Then they both try to create language. The Creator writes down his on a large paper; ’ the Raven simply caws, and the people begin to speak. Then the Raven gets fire, using his forefinger as a fire-drill, and his foot as a base for the fire-drill. Another time he strikes one thumb-nail against the other, like flint and steel. H e ascends to the uppermost heaven and obtains two reindeer from the Godly Being [Afiafi-vAIrgIn. The word “ P f i ~ # ” (“dfiafi”) is used also for a shaman’s medi- cine spirits]. He brings them down to the people and creates the Reindeer Koryak. The Maritime Koryak, on the other hand, arise of their own will from dogs’ excrement. Then he ascends again, and, stealing from the uppermost heaven the sun, puts it into his mouth. After some time he is found out by the Godly Being. T h e n he must laugh, and lets out the sun.’

I n other Chukchee versions of the creation myth, the Raven overtakes a monster, half man, half reindeer.* He splits it in halves, creating the herdsman and his herd. He finds a wild man, who catches the wild reindeer and tears them with his teeth. The Raven teaches him more suitable ways of hunting, and the

The wandering transformers and culture heroes, however, appear in pairs in tales belonging to various Indian tribes, and a contest between the two frequently takes place. Perhaps we have here one more point in which the old traditions of both continents present evident analogies.

In a Gilyak tale the forty-seven sons of the first living man received some white paper from the god Targhan, and so were able to write. One day they could not understand one another, and talked in forty-seven different languages. Afterward they lost their papers and forgot the art of writing. - Laufer, ‘* Preliminary Notes on Explorations among the Amoor tribes ” (American Anthropologist, April-June, 1g00.

He is tickled under the chin.

P. 316). Compare Boas, Indianische Sagen, p. 187* 8 2.

Compare Nelson, loc. cit., p. 458.

ROGORAS] THE FOLKLORE OF NORTHEASTERN ASIA 643

man becomes a Lamut. The Raven makes reindeer from a number of dry boughs, kicking them with his heel. This last detail is repeated in various hero-tales, where, usually, an orphan-boy, a young shaman, or a poor suitor of a wealthy bride suddenly creates large herds by kicking dry boughs.

I t is told also that the Creator made men of stone, but, finding them too clumsy, restored them to their former condition. Everywhere in the mountains there are shown groups of bowl- ders of various forms, which are presumed to be these people or their houses.'

In another creation legend, it is said that man lived formerly on stones-red stones serving as meat and white stones as fat. The first pair were brother and sister. The sister asked the brother to marry her, and, on his refusal, deceived him, changing her place of dwelling, dress, etc., and pretending to be another person.

2. In the Yukaghir traditions several mountains appear as living beings. I n one tale, for instance, the mountain Large- Heart ( b m o h d j 2 ) is a young woman who has many suitors. She bears a child by the mountain KogC'lgi2. A rival suitor, the mountain LagAyCk, throws the infant into the water. I t drifts down for several miles. The woman beats the offender with an iron tailoring-board. LagAyCk falls down, and his shrieks are heard far off. A number of other mountains, whose names are all mentioned, want t o go and help the combatants. All these mountains are situated on the banks of the Kolyma, in the country of the Yukaghir.' The notion about the mountains making love and fighting bears resemblance to the ideas of the North Pacific Indians.*

In a series of tales the Raven steals three skin balls con-

From their children issued mankind.

3.

' Compare Boas, Indianische Sagen, p. 319, $j 20.

Jochelson. YziKaghir MateriaZs, p. IOI.

a Boas, Indianische Sagen, pp. 17, 360, 3 153 ; Mytkoiogy of the Beila Gola Indians, y . 28.

644 AMERZCAN ANTHKOPOLOGZST LN. S., 4, 1902

taining the light, from the house of a M a , by the instrumentality of the young daughter of the ME. I n Indian tales the luminaries are usually kept in special receptacles. In one Alaska Eskimo tale the source of light looks, however, like a large ball of fire.' Sometimes the balls are kicked upward and burst, and their con- tents stick to the firmament. The girl, too, is kicked upward and sticks to the moon. In other versions the Raven pecks at the skin covering of the balls. After piercing it he is scorched by the gushing light and becomes quite black. Finally he transforms himself into the thunder and soars over the world, frighten- ing the people with his thunder-cawing. He creates rivers by making furrows on the ground with one of his wings that he drags behind, and filling them with his water. I t is an oft-repeated incident of these tales that people living in darkness mistrust and mock him.'

In one tale it is told that the Wolf, the richest herdsman in the country, scoffs at the Raven on account of his poverty. The Raven takes back all the luminaries and hides them in his house, but restores them to the firmament after receiving a heavy ransom. As a part of the ransom he receives two sisters of the Wolf, girls with black ear-rings. They agree to cut out the Raven's tongue. When he comes home, they request him t o show his tongue, and swiftly wind around it a loop of twine and tighten it so that they forever deprive the Raven of the power of speech. In American tales a similar trick is performed by the Raven on the Cormorant.*

5 . All these tales are Chukchee. A Kamchadale tale about the Raven and fresh water resembles the corresponding American episode. The Raven, Kutq, finds on the seacoast Avvi, the lobster, who in other tales is represented as a sea-god. Avvi, at

4.

Nelson, loc. dt., p. 484.

Boas, Indanische Sagen, p. 313, § 2.

Compare Boas, Indianische SagPn, p. 330, episode 7.

See also Boas, " Notes on the Eskimo of Port Clar- ence, Alaska," your. Am. FoZk-Lore, 1894, p. 206.

BOGORAS] 7 H E FOLKLOh’E OF NOR THEASTERN ASIA 645

his request, carries him into the depths, and feeds him with dried meat, but refuses to give him to drink. The Raven is tortured with thirst. He sings about his sisters having plenty of water up on the earth, and finally promises them to Avvi for a bucketful of fresh water. I n another version, however, he himself steals the water.

The American incident of the leaf swallowed by the chief’s daughter, who afterward gives birth to a child who is no other than the Raven, is repeated in some Chukchee versions. The Raven, in the course of a contest of strength in supernatural power with a mighty shaman, transforms himself into a leaf of PoGygonum poZymorphum (in another version into a hair), and drops into a pool. A girl carries him to her house in a bucket, but he is found out by his rival. In the tales of the origin of the sun, the Raven and the small girl clamoring for balls never appear as the same person.

The Raven (in another version, a wandering young man who was the Raven’s slave) comes to a camp of wealthy traders and urges them to flee under the pretext that their enemies are coming. After their flight he takes all their provisions and peltries, which he carries home.

8. The Raven, or Raven’s son, assuming the form of the thunder-bird, carries away a whale in his claws, but is swallowed by the whale while he bends too low over its mouth. Whale and Raven drop into the sea. The Raven, however, kills the whale by pecking at its heart, and comes out. I n the Koryak version of northern Kamchatka he is frightened by the approach of some people, enters the jaws of a dead whale, and comes out after they have ripped open the belly.’ Coming out of the whale’s belly, the Raven flies off, his skin full of oil. On his way he is hailed by a Fox-woman. H e tries t o answer her and drops some oil on her fur coat. She squeezes the oil out of her coat into her oil tub, and, out of gratitude, sends

6.

7.

Compare Boas, Indianirche Sngen, p. 330. episode 15.

646 AMERZCA N A NTHROPOLOGZST [N. s., 4, 1902

the Raven some berry-cakes, which, however, cause his sudden death.

In another tale the Raven's son-in-law enters the whale and is carried on the sea for a long time, subsisting all the while on the whale's meat.

The incident of swallowing living beings is attributed to several other animals besides the whale. For instance, the Raven transforms himself into the carrion of a reindeer that is partly eaten by a wolf. The Raven thus enters the wolf's stomach and succeeds in killing him with his claws. I n a Koryak tale two bird-women go to a cave on the shore, one after another. They are swallowed by a giant female &!a,' but succeed in making an exit for themselves with their claws.

The most widely known of the Raven tales peculiar to the west coast of Bering sea is the tale about the Raven and the Mouse-girls, which appears with the same details anong the Chuk- chee, the Koryak, the Kamchadale, and the Russianized Yukaghir of the Kolyma. I give the modern Kanichadale version of this tale with parts from the Koryak of northern Kamchatka. Steller relates the first episodes with the same details.'

The Raven puts on his raven-breeches and raven-boots and goes strolling on the beach, where some small mice have found a little seal. When unable to do so, they pretend that it is a log, though it has eyes, eyelashes, claws, etc. The Raven is not deceived. He kicks them aside and carries away the seal. I n the night-time they come to his house, led by the smallest of them, dzgzhP" (" hairless '' in Koryak), eat up all the cooked meat, and deiecate into the dish. Besides, they put some sharp stones in the boots of Raven and of his wife. In the morning, after their tricks are discovered, the Raven again puts on his raven-breeches, takes his raven war-club, and starts to seek revenge; but the Mice call him their grandfather, and give him a

9.

They try to conceal it.

I See p. 587. Steller, loc. cit.. p. 285.


large cake of berries mixed with fish. Then they offer t o louse him. After lulling him to sleep they sew to his eyebrows some strips of red fur. When he awakes he sees everything around as if on fire, hastens home, and, believing he sees a blaze around his house, calls Miti, and requests her to sacrifice the worst of their sons in order to appease the flames. The next morning the Mice again lull the Raven to sleep and sew a bladder-bag on his buttocks, so that he defecates into the bladder and cannot find his excrements, but afterward is frightened by the rattling noise they produce behind his back. After that he sets out t o catch partridges, but, instead of bringing the birds home, he eats them all when visiting the snares. The half-starved Miti finally discovers that his hunting cabin in the forest is full of partridges. She catches one, plucks it alive and sends it to the Raven’s cabin, in- structing it t o frighten him by crowing and by beating its wings. The Raven is so badly frightened that he flies home, followed by the pIucked partridge, which repeats every cry he makes. Miti kills the bird-charm and sits down before the window t o mend her coat. After that follows the episode about the Mice darken- ing the window, which induces Miti t o cut off her nose and cheeks.’ A t last Miti discovers that the Mice are the real cause of her trouble. Then she brings out a large bag, and, putting it across the trail of the Mice, catches them all and hangs the bag on a high larch-tree, intending to preserve them for the coming month.

T h e last episode is followed by the incident of the delivery of the Mice from the bag by the Fox,’ which, among the Chukchee, forms the subject of an independent tale, though its details are identical with this episode of the Raven tale.

Miti wants to take vengeance, but the Fox proves her alibi, smearing her body with alder-juice and pretending to have been

This version belongs to the Kamchadale.

See p. 630. No. 23. * Compare p. 615.

648 AMERICAN ANTh'A'OPOLOGlST [N. s., 4, 1902

very sick. She requests Miti to carry out a vessel filled with the same juice, pretending it is her urine mixed with blood. She follows her stealthily, and succeeds in hurling her down from a steep cliff into a deep river.

In the Koryak version of the same tale, when the Raven is lulled to sleep the third time, the Mice tattoo his face, and afterward request him to look into the river. H e mistakes his image for that of a pretty tattooed woman. He desires to marry her, and sends her as wedding-gifts his stone hammer and anvil, which sink to the bottom of the river. Then he jumps in himself, but drifts out to the open sea, while exclaiming that the sky is shaking and turning above his head.'

10. In the Chukchee version, this episode is followed by another one. The Raven pretends to be dead, and is conveyed by his wife on a sledge to an underground dwelling that is to serve as his tomb. While dragging the sledge across a brook, Miti, owing to her exertion, breaks wind. The Raven cannot restrain his laughter. His son notices that he laughed, and tells his mother, who reproves the boy for saying that the father is alive.

It is very remarkable that the incident of a woman breaking wind while carrying a man across a brook should occur in one of the Korela tales of eastern Finland, and it may have been brought to northeastern Asia by Russians, though nothing is known about any intermediate links. However, the similarity between the old folklore of arctic Europe and northeastern Asia can also be traced in some other cases.'

Miti leaves with the Raven two bags of provisions - one filled with meat, the other with fat. Afterward a Fox sees him cooking the provisions. (In another version the Fox notices only the smoke coming out of the vent-hole.) She tells Miti, who then plucks a live partridge, sews it to her body in place of one of her breasts which she has cut away, and then drops it on

Compare the Kamchadale version of this in Steller, loc. cit., p. 259. * See p. 668.

BOGORAS] T H E FOLKLORE OF NORTHEASTERAV ASIA 649

the Raven through the vent-hole. H e is frightened and returns home.

11 . I n another Chukchee version, the Raven wants to transform himself into a woman. He transforms his penis into a needlecase, the pubis into needles, and the testicles into two thimbles. The Fox-woman, however, sees him and informs Miti. She advises her t o take revenge on the Raven,- to put on man's dress, and, when passing by the tent where Raven lives, t o declare that she is going to woo Miti. Then the Raven feels jealous, resumes his former shape, and hastens home. Mfti, however, has made the figure of a man, and has laid it down by her side in the sleepingroom. The Raven, seeing his presumed rival, and sent away by Miti, dies of grief.

Another episode of the Raven myth, widely known on the west coast of Bering sea, is his struggle with the giants who produce the cold wind. Bad weather causes famine in a village. The Raven wants to stop the tempest. H e starts for the land of the Wind-giants. His sledge is an old boat, and for sledge-dogs he selects from among the wild beasts two white foxes (in another version, two white hares). He finds the Wind-giants shoveling snow with the shoulder-blades of a whale. The Raven cheats them out of all their meat and peltries, and even induces them to throw into his boat their fur coats and caps. Then he makes good his escape, regardless of their frenzied cries, and leaves them to be frozen to death.'

In several Koryak and Chukchee versions of the legend there appears still another episode of the Raven myth. The Raven gives his daughter in marriage to the son of the Wolverine. The Wolverines, however, ill-use her, give her bad seal-skins in place of her soft reindeer-skin garments, and tie her tongue with twine to stop her complaints.2 EmCmkut, the Raven's son, discovers that his sister has been maltreated, and sends the Raven to

She does so.

12.

13.

I Compare Nelson, loc. cit., p. 484. Compareibid., p. 502.

650 A M E W C A N ANTHROPOLOGIST [N. s., 4, 1902

fetch her ; but the latter is readily satisfied with the assertion that his daughter is dead. The wronged woman wants to speak to her father, but the people pretend that she is a slave and frighten the Raven by alleging that she is insane and blood- thirsty. The Raven departs without recognizing his daughter ; but EmCmkut finally succeeds in freeing her. In order to take revenge for the ill-usage that she has received, he makes an artificial dog of snow, and a little child of his excrement. The dog is transformed into a man, and is sent to the Wolverine’s camp, together with the child. During the night he copulates with one of the young women, resumes the shape of a dog, and drags her along as dogs do,’ until her body is entirely worn, and therefore he brings to the Raven’s house only one small bone of the woman’s pelvis. Meanwhile the excrement-boy dissolves in the sleeping- room and soils the skins.

14. In a series of Chukchee tales, the Raven is derided on account of his greediness and of the improper food that he has to eat. H e feeds on human excretn&ts, calling them self-pounded cakes. He visits his son-in-law, a rich reindeer-breeder, and is treated to. the best fat. When his son-in-law returns the visit the Raven boasts of the abundance of his supplies; but his son, when sent for provisions, brings only a putrid carcass of a small pup which he found on an old camp-site. However, the Raven is given a fat reindeer buck by his son-in-law. He sends his son with the good tidings to Miti, while he himself remains with the carcass, and in two days consumes all the flesh. He covers the bones with a layer of bleached raven-dung. When he reaches his home he assures Miti that the carcass is covered with fat.

In a Koryak legend it is told that Miti, during the absence of the Raven, is visited by her lover, the Magpie. He bruises her face with his beak, and she wants the Raven to believe that it was done by the sharp beams of a dog shed. The Raven, however,

15.

Compare Boas, EsRimo of Ba@n Land, p. 166. See also p. 113.


finds out what has happened, and, with the heavy smoke of cedar- boughs, drives the Magpie out of the house.

The Raven goes hunting, and finds the house of the giant-woman, who has a reindeer-herd pent up in the house to protect them from mosquitoes. He spits down through the vent-hole and kills a half-grown fawn. The woman sees the fawn die, seizes it, and flings it out of doors. Then the Raven takes it home. The Fox, smelling the roasting fat, asks for some, and receives a small piece. She goes also, and in the same way kills a large buck, but when she tries to carry it home she finds herself unable to lift it. When she requests the woman to help her raise the buck on her shoulders, the woman strikes her with a club on the head and nearly kills her.

Another time the Raven goes to a lake and begins to fish through a hole in the ice. He catches the young son of the master of the lake, splits his belly, and, finding it full of fish, takes some and carries them home. The Fox asks for just one small fish, and is given no more than she asks for. Then the Fox goes fishing and catches the boy. She splits his belly, but takes too much fish, and, when carrying it home, breaks through the ice and is drowned.

I t may be compared with an Indian tale,' though there the Raven plays the part of the foolish fox, and a small bird acts wisely.

In one of the Koryak tales the Raven and a small bird are competitors in a marriage-suit. The Raven acts basely and foolishly, and is vanquished by the small bird.

I n a Koryak tale the Fox catches salmon; at first she gets a small one, then a larger one. Both are stolen by the Raven, who, in their place, puts stones in the bag. In the morning the Fox catches a large thong-seal and moves away from the Raven. The Foxes settle in another place, and are cooking meat,

16. The Raven and the Fox are neighbors.

This tale is from the Chukchee.

17.

I Boas, Indianische Sagen, p. 106.

6 5 2 AMEKZCAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [N. s., 4, 1902

while the Raven is hungry. He flies about, swallows their lad- ,der and their lamp, and then tries to pull up the kettle through the smoke-hole. The daughter of the Fox strikes him with a stick, the kettle is overthrown and the broth scalds the heads of the Fox’s children. The old Fox strings a piece of meat on an iron hook and flings it upward. The Raven snatches it and is caught ; he holds on with his hands and feet to the poles, and finally the line‘snaps and he flies away with the hook in his jaw. Finding the Wolf, he proposes a vomiting-match, vomits out the ladder, the lamp, and the hook, and ties them to the Wolf’s tail. The latter is so much frightened by their continuous rattle that he flees, and leaves in his house all the meat, which the Raven eats.

18. In another Koryak tale it is told how the Raven Kutqfnnaku, when in want of food, creates a river, tries to catch fish with a hook, but catches his own shoulder and is compelled to desist. The Fox offers to try her hand, but does not catch anything. Somehow the Raven succeeds in catching one of the seals that lie on the beach. H e is careful to pick out the smallest one. The next morning the Fox goes to the shore and tries to catch one of the largest seals, but is unable to lift it on her back. The seal offers to help her, but, while getting on her shoulders, contrives to push her into the water.’ The Fox is carried out to the open sea, but finally succeeds in coming back to the shore. She spreads her fur coat on the sand to dry, and, taking out her eyes, sets them by her side, enjoining them to keep watch, and, if anything should happen, t o rouse her by tickling her belly. The eyes tickle the Fox’s belly, but cannot arouse her. Again she is carried away, then lands, and taking hold of her eyes, she pounds them with a stone. I n their place she tries, first two black berries, but they are too dark; then two small bits of clean ice, but they weep all the time.’

The floodtide sets in.

Compare p 651. Compare Boas, Zndinnisrhe Sugen, p. 7.

BOGORAS] THE FOLKLORE OF NORTHEASTERN ASIA 65 3

19. The Raven turns into a reindeer, but is killed by the Wolf. The Fox transforms herself into a man, marries t h e Raven's wife, and begins to play tricks on her. She kicks Miti 's kettle, breaks it and scatters the meat about, drops her butcher- knife into the fire, and finally revives the meat and sends it out. Then she goes along the shore and sees some Gulls drifting on a log. She jumps to the log, the Gulls fly off, overtprning the log, and the Fox is drowned.

In a Koryak tale the Raven excretes three pieces, one large and two small ones, and pretends they are a mother bear and two cubs, that pursue him. The next morning he excretes another piece, and declares it to be a nice young woman. He brings her into the house and lies down with her, but gradually she melts away.' Steller mentions also another tale about the Raven marrying various creatures, but does not give any details. I give here a few tales of this kind :

I n a tale of the Russianized Yukaghir of the Kolyma, the Raven carries away a young girl. Her brother goes in search of her, but, on reaching the house, is afraid to go in. At last he enters, is invited by his brother-in-law to a match of eating nuts, but contrives to put lead bullets in their place for the Raven's share. (This last detail is taken from old Russian tales.) The Raven prepares a stifling hot steam bath for his visitor, who pushes the Raven in, and thus kills him.'

In a Koryak tale from northern Kamchatka, a gosling cannot fly away in autumn because his wings are too short. H e is left on the lake by his parents. A fox wants to devour him, but Kutq saves him and brings him to his house. The Goose-boy grows into a man, and Kutq's daughter marries him; but they quarrel on account of the difference of their food, and the Goose- man flies away.

In another Koryak tale, Kutq marries a Cedar-nut girl with

They are fishing.

20.

21.

22.

23.

Compare the Kamchadale version of this in Steller, loc. cit., p. 261. Compare Boas, Indianische Sagen, p. 277.

654 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [N. S . , 4, 1902

a copper head, somewhat like the lid of a copper teapot.' His son EmCmkut marries a Shell-girl and settles with her in a cabin under the bush. In a tale mentioned by Steller, Kutq copulates with a shell; his membrum virile is cut off and remains in the shell. His wife finally finds it, when cooking and opening the shell, and restores it to its proper place.'

24. In a Koryak tale from Kamchatka, Kutqfnnaku lives with his sister Amfllu, who is a small spider. PirvQhn marries her. Kutqfnnaku becomes ill and is advised by his brother-in- law t9 travel to the mouth of Tighil river, which is in central Kamchatka. There he finds a Whitewhale-woman, Miti, and marries her. Their son is EmCmkut, who, when full grown, takes four wives, -a Whitewhale-woman, a Faded-grass-woman, a Burning-fire-woman, and a fourth wife whose name (KInzesAtr- flhut) has no significance. Afterward he marries a fifth wife, Dawn-woman (Tfle-fiICut), who continually quarrels with all the others. His first wife feels insulted and flees from the house. He goes in search of her, and on the way, feeling thirsty, drinks some water from a brook. He is struck by the smell of the smoke coming up from beneath. On looking down he notices his aunt Amfllu and her servant-girl KIhfllu. They request him to come down, and offer him a little food,-a cedarnut-shell filled with seal-oil and a tiny dried gudgeon, -recommending him to fall to with his eyes shut. When taking the food he finds that his right hand is dipped into oil up to the elbow, and the gudgeon has turned into a stately king-salmon.

Such sudden transformations of small dried fishes, small roasted birds, etc., into large pieces of choice fish and game ; the increase in size of oil-vessels, etc., frequently occur in tales from the west coast of Bering sea. In a tale of the Russianized

* In some Chukchee tales appear houses, boats, sledges, made of copper, as well as iron sleeping-rooms, chains, and swords. Reference to these metals was probably inserted in the tales only after the coming of Europeans, and there are no remarkable incidents connected with them.

* Steller, loc. cit.. p. 263.


Yukaghir of the Kolyma, a boy who is maltreated by his father goes away across the tundra in search of unknown people living on the shores of the sea. On the way he kills a tiny bird and roasts it on a small wooden spit. At the first bite the bird turns into the fat breast of a large mountain sheep.

In a Chukchee tale t w o old women who live together want to have a child. T h e other becomes pregnant and gives birth t o a Mouse-boy, whom the Owl steals and swallows. The Raven undertakes to restore the boy. H e visits the Owl and gets up a quarrel which ends in his inducing the Owl to break wind. The mouse-bones come out pasted together as a ball, and turn into a nice fur-clad boy. The Raven offers to cure the Owl of diarrhoea, and inserts into his anus hot stones, which burn his intestines.' The Owl is so much weakened that he cannot rise. Then the two old women, in the form of an old man and his wife, come with sticks and strike him. The Owl defecates, and the bones of various animals come out. These return to life, and the land and sea are filled with game.

In another Chukchee tale a Fox is talking with the Bear about what is the most terrifying thing in the world. The Fox says it is a " hummock-head," meaning a man. T h e Bear mocks the hummock-head, and says that the rattling and gibbering partridge is much worse. T h e Fox has a great time with the partridges. T h e Bear tries to kill a man, and is wounded by a spear. At his next meeting with the Fox, he is ashamed to acknowledge his defeat, and says that his belly is aching. The Fox offers t o cure him, and makes him swallow hot stones, which scald his intestines. Then she feeds her children on his body.

In the Yukaghir version of this tale, the Wolverine comes and wants t o eat the fat protruding from the wound, but the Bear strikes him with a firebrand. The Wolverine's back is scorched, but his mother patches it with a piece of brown smoked and

25.

One of them plays the husband.

26.

They agree to make the test.

Compare Boas, Indianische Sagen, p. 317.

656 AMERICAN ANTHkOPOLOGlST [N. S.. 4, I902

curried reindeer-skin. Hence the wolverine’s back is now brown.’

27. In a Kamchadale tale the Raven Kutq is said to have two daughters. Two suitors come-North Wind and South Wind. When the first marries one of the daughters and settles down with Kutq’s family, it becomes so cold that, when Kutq is inspecting his fish-weirs, blood oozes o u t from under his nails. H e becomes angered and sends away his son-in-law. Then South Wind marries one of the daughters, settles with them, and immediately the weather becomes so damp that everything is covered with. mildew. Rain falls so heavily that even the underarm portions of the fur shirts rot. Men, beasts, birds, all are starving. Then the elder daughter sends her young son to find his father, North Wind, who had left them a year before, and thus she succeeds in bringing back good weather.

The Chukchee tell that the Raven is invited by the Gull family to perform a shamanistic incantation. H e beats the drum, and says, “ I have fallen on my buttocks! I have fallen on my buttocks! Kewe, kewe, kewe ! I have risen again! ” H e mocks his host and flies away.

In another tale it is told that a woman, made ill through an evil charm sent to her by a foe, asks the Raven to cure her. He sings and dances, then flies away to the upper world, but cannot find the evil charm. He sends first for a fox, then for a beetle, a squirrel, and a polar bear. This last one finds the charm and brings it tied up in a mitten. This tale shows a certain similarity to the one recorded by Boas.’

He pretends to be dead, and lies down on the tundra. The Ravens assemble, and, unsheathing their beak-knives, come nearer and nearer. The chief-literally the “ Strongest One ”-gives a signal to begin skinning him, but the boy snatches his knife from him.

28.

29.

30. A poor boy wants to obtain magic power.

* Jochelson, Yuknghir Materials, p. 27. Zndianischc Sagen, p. 78, $8.


T h e other Ravens fly off. The Raven-chief wants his knife, and, in payment for its return, makes the boy a mighty shaman. This tale belongs t o the Chukchee, and closely resembles one from Alaska.' Even the minor details are similar in both tales,- for instance, the talk of the Ravens among themselves and with the boy,-though the Alaskan tale ends in the boy's death. I found this tale also among the Eskimo of Indian point. T h e Chukchee have also a dramatized form of this tale, which is used to secure good luck in hunting.

Another important myth of northwestern America, that of the Mink, does not occur in Asia in its complete form, because there is no mink in northeastern Asia. T h e first part of the tale, relating to the Sun's son, who is left on earth in a village, and goes up t o heaven in search of his father, however, is found among the Koryak and the Chukchee.

They ascend along one of the Sun's rays, and for one night pitch their camp on the banks of the Pebble river (the Milky Way). In the morning, however, when the Sun starts on his usual way, a Black- beetle-woman strips the Sun's bride of her clothes, and conceals her under the roots of t he grass. She puts on her dress (in another version, her skin), and becomes the Sun's bride in her stead. T h e woman, however, succeeds in rising out of the ground. She has a son, and begins t o snare reindeer. She kills a great many. The boy grows rapidly. When he has learned t o shoot with a bow, his mother sends him in search of his father. She tells him to shoot an arrow across the Pebble river. T h e arrow falls down in a valley near the Sun's house. The Sun recognizes the boy, and finds his former wife. H e asks the Beetle-woman t o let him louse her head, and, when running his fingers through her hair, he finds out that she has a beetle-neck. Then he makes a pile of wood in front of the entrance to his house, and burns her. Before dying, the Beetle-woman curses the human race

31.

T h e Sun comes down to the earth and marries a girl.

' Nelson, loc. cit . , p. 474. AM. ANTH. N. S. . 4-42

65 8 AMERZCAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [N. s . , 4, 1902

with various diseases,-smallpox, syphilis, and others. She continues cursing mankind until her husband pushes her with a stick farther into the flame, and turns her over, belly upward. This calls to mind the Indian tales of K.blk.alo-it1 and T'al.' T h e chain of arrows used by Mink as a ladder for ascending t o heaven does not occur on Asiatic soil. The heroes usually go t o the '' dawn side," and ascend to the upper world along a steep trail leading upward. I n one tale, however, the hero darts a needle upward, and ascends along the thread which is run through its eye.

In a series of tales the white hare appears as chief hero. H e secures the sun from the spirits; with a small bow of grass he vanquishes all competitors in a shooting-match and carries away the wealthy bride on a sled of the same material, after she has broken all the stronger sledges of his rivals.

33. In one Chukchee tale the luminaries are fetched by the Wolf, while the Raven is blamed as a poltroon and a good-for- nothing. This tale has no connection with the general Raven story.

34. Some very curious Kamchadale and Koryak tales relate t o the ermine, probably representing fragments of a separate Ermine myth, not unlike in character t o the Raven and Mink series.

The Ermines live in one village with Kutq. T h e Ermine- woman is i n labor. Her husband runs through the village, inviting the people t o a feast; but no guests come. A young Ermine-girl, when sent to Kutq's house with some cooked meat, is thrown out. T h e Ermines are kicked and driven away from the village. I n another tale the Ermines are described as living under a cliff on the seacoast. The flood overflows their dwelling while they are in bed, and they charge each other with letting water. They climb the mountains. On the summit the father Ermine cuts off one of his ribs, and pretends t o have found it on an old

32.

noGoRAs] T H E FOLKLORE OF NORTHEASTERN ASIA 659

camping-place of some Reindeer people. They cook the r ib; but he faints, and is near death.

I n one of the episodes of the tale of the Raven and the Mice, they sew to his body the belly of an ermine, with the effect that he can eat but very little. I do not know whether this incident has any connection with other Ermine tales.

36. The tales about fishes are still more interesting than those relating to the ermine. They occur only among the fishing tribes in the southern parts of the region under discussion, both in Asia and America; while the tribes living in the north--for instance, the Chukchee-do not do much fishing, and do not care much for fish.

T h e Koryak and the Kamchadale in contrast with the Chuk- chee, and the North Pacific Indian in contrast with the American Eskimo, are primarily fishermen ; therefore the tales about fish can have originated only among these southern tribes.

In a Koryak tale, which is found also in a Kamchadale version, Kuyqfnnaku and his family are starving. Kuyqfnnaku goes to the sea, finds on the shore a Fish-woman, and brings her to his house. Miti is jealous, and when Kuyqfnnaku has left the house, kills the Fish-woman and cooks her in a pot. Kuyqfnnaku, on coming home, partakes of the cooked fish ; but the Fish-woman steps out of the store-room, denounces Miti, and departs for the sea. The arguments of Kuyqfnnaku, who tries t o make her return, are of no avail, and after a while the family is starving again.

In another Koryak tale, Yifie’a-fl6ut and K11h go digging roots, and take along a dried fish-head for traveling provisions. When dining on it, K11h throws a cheek-bone of the fish a t her companion, and the bone immediately sticks to the cheek of Yifie’a-fi6ut. She refuses t o return, and lies down on the ground to sleep. When she awakes, she finds by her side a Fish-man, who is combing his hair. H e marries her, and they have plenty of fish from the river near by. Afterward the same happens t o

35.

37.

38.

K11k

660 AMERICAN A N THRO POL OGIS T [N. s.. 4, 1902

39. The general character of these short tales resembles very much that of the Salmon myth of the North Pacific Indians. The Indian idea that fish-bones when thrown into the water are transformed into living fish, recurs in several combinations on the west coast of Bering sea. In the widespread whale-ceremony small parts of the whale’s tail, flippers, and head are thrown into the sea in order to change them into living whales.

Hunters, when trading furs, also cut off some small portions of the nose of the animals that they have killed. They keep them as hunting talismans, evidently believing that they are able to transform themselves into new animals. This idea is borne out in the tale of “ T h e Black Bear and the Wandering Woman,” known among several of the West Bering tribes. T h e Bear gives the woman small pieces of various costly furs, which, after arriving a t her own village, she transforms into real skins.

40. A number of tribes of the Pacific coast know the tale in which a man (more frequently a shaman) wanders to another world, under-ground or under-water, and finds that one of the inhabitants, animal or spirit, is struck by a sudden illness. Looking attentively a t the patient, he notices a harpoon-point in his body, a noose wound around his throat, or some other similar cause of the illness, which, however, is invisible t o the other people. He offers t o cure the patient, and removes the cause of illness. T h e patient suddenly recovers, and pays the visitor with the best of his goods.

In the Chukchee version of this tale a man, after various adventures, goes down to the lower world, and midway stops for a rest in the land of the mice. Since he is a great shaman, he is requested t o help a woman who is suffering from a severe cold and sharp pain in her throat. When looking a t her, he notices on her neck a thin noose of grass, such as the Chukchee children make t o catch mice. He destroys the noose and the mouse recovers. In return for his services the mouse-people give him

BOGORAS] THE FOLKLORE OF NORTHEASTERN ASIA 66 I

the choicest fawn-skins, which, however, on his return to our world, prove to be dry leaves and pieces of bark.’

Generally speaking, the world of animals has the same customs and occupations as that of men. Owls hunt lemmings, skin and carve them, store away the best hams, and break the larger bones to extract the marrow. The ermine is a shapely young man clad in white skins.’ The fox is a woman in a red fur garment, looking for a husband. The squirrel is a small young woman with long fingers and a handsome gray overcoat ; she pounds cedar- nuts and makes cakes of them.

The tale of “ T h e Woman Marrying a Black Bear” is well known among all West Bering tribes, even among the Lamut and the Tungus, who belong to the stock of the mainland of Asia. The principal features are usually the same. The woman is driven away from her home by her husband, at the instigation of the younger rival, or by her parents for disobedience, or simply by famine. She wanders through the bush, finds a bear’s den, enters it, and is fed by the owner. Then she feels sleepy, lies down side by side with the bear, and, upon awakening in the spring, finds that she is with child. The son is born in clue time ; but he has a bear’s face, or bear’s ears, or else is hairy all over the body.8

Among the others, the Lamut and the Tungus even consider themselves to have sprung from this bear-faced boy, and call the bear their grandfather. The bear-dances of the Ostiak and of the Aino, the raising of young bear-cubs for the festivities, etc., belong to the same circle of ideas.

42. Several other tales of the west coast of Bering sea present

In the Chukchee tale about h q a l o ’ s wife, appears a charmed

41.

resemblances to tales of the North Pacific Indians.

’ See Boas, Indimirche Sagen, p. 356, 5 63. Chukrhee Mutei.icils, p. 377. Compare Boas, bfj’thology of the BeZZa Coola Indians, ’‘ The Black Bear,”

p. 111.

662 AMERZCAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [N. s., 4, 1902

reindeer-buck, which has been placed by her on the river-bank to kill all. passers-by.'

In another Chukchee tale a man named MC’tIfio joins a wild reindeer-herd and wanders about with them. He casts off his clothing and feeds on moss, like reindeer. After a year has passed, he leaves the reindeer and joins the wolves; but the wolves are run down by hunters. MG’tIfio escapes, and, joining the foxes, marries a she-fox. She is caught in a spring-trap, and MG’tIfio, while lingering near her, is secured by the people. When he is brought into the sleeping-room, he faints, and nearly dies from the smell of the house; but, after a drink of warm water, he vomits a quantity of moss, and then a large ball of matted animal hair.

In another version he acquires, as a result of his adventures, luck in hunting and unerring ability to tell the quality of a large moss-pasture from a single whiff from a small bunch of moss plucked from under the snow? I t may be mentioned here that the Chukchee have a special verb for becoming like a beast - t-irk&urkZn (“ I become like a beast by supernatural influence ”).

Among the Russianized Yukaghir of the Kolyma I have collected a tale about a one-sided man who had only one hand, one foot, and one eye. H e was very skilful in hunting, and brought to his house reindeer tied in bundles. A young girl found out his lodging, and became his wife. In another version it is told that three sisters wanted to have him for their husband. The youngest, on reaching his house, found food cooked, skins scraped, etc., but no woman in sight. At last she opened a large box in which various insects were hidden. Supposing them to be her rivals, she poured boiling water on them and killed them all. But afterward she was scolded by the one-sided man, and had to do all the work. This tale is quite similar t o that of Kasa’na of the Bilqula I n d i a n ~ . ~

43.

After that he again feels like a man.

44.

Compare Boas, Zndianische Sagen, p. 2, where an elk plays a similar r61e. Ibid., Indianisrhe Sageti, I’ The Tale of Mountain Goats,” p. 11.

* Ibid., p. 256.

BOGORAS] THE FOLKLORE OF NORTHEASTERN ASZA 663

45. The thunder-bird appears in several Chukchee tales, also among the Kussianized Yukaghir of the Kolyma. Near the mouth of Kolyma river, some high and steep crags on top of the peak called Yegoryevich are supposed to be an old nesting- place of the giant Noga-bird, who preyed on reindeer and men, elks and whales, and who occasionally would carry away a seal- hunter in his canoe. The natives are afraid to visit this place, and assert that it is full of bleached bones. I thought I might find there some traces of an ancient place of sacrifice, but I did not find anything. There is a tale from Alaska which corre- sponds exactly to this belief.'

Some parts of this tradition may belong to the ancient Asiatic stock, including, among others, the Arabian tale about the giant bird Rokh. In Slavic folklore all fabulous and half-fabulous birds are intermixed. Noj (Hog) signifies in Servian the ostrich, and with some plausibility one may connect with it the Noga- bird of the Kolyma.

In the folklore of the Chukchee the giant thunder-bird appears sometimes to be the same as the raven ; but more frequently it is a kind of giant eagle of supernatural strength and power. Even now the eagle is protected by a taboo, and to kill him is supposed to result in bad weather and in famine. In other tales, the thunder-bird is called g/r2diz-gdLE,-" middle (sea) bird,"- perhaps in relation to the albatross. It is so large that, when floating on the billows and suddenly stretching its long neck, it can easily swallow a whole boat, which, however, will safely glide through its intestines and come out again without much damage. In one tale, however, the men of the crew lose all their hair while in the bird's stomach?

One Chukchee legend tells us that the Raven and the Eagle-both men-live in matrimonial alliance with one woman and have t w o sons, one of whom is the Eagle's, and the other the

46.

Compare Nelson, loc. cit, p. 486. See Boas, Indinirische Sogen, pp. 5 1 , 7~~ 102.

664 AMERICAN A N THROPOL OGZS T [N. S., 4, 192

Raven's. T h e young ones begin to hunt, and, among other game, bring home a large " high-jumping " reindeer-buck, then a giant fish of the size of a whale, which swallows one of them on the way home, but immediately afterward drops dead. They are forbidden by their parents t o wander in a certain direction, but finally start thither, and the Eagle's son is carried away by the giant eagle-shaman. The bird-parents, however, discover what has happened, and succeed in rescuing the Eagle's son.

47. In another tale, the giant bird, when angered, causes a violent storm, which makes the earth tremble.

In still another, a female giant eagle appears as mistress of bad and good weather. When visited by two mortals in her own world, she undertakes, a t their request, t o clear the sky, and begins to scrape it with a large brass scraper; but, noticing that one of the visitors looks a t her naked legs, she grows angry, and hurls them both over t o our world.

In a Chukchee tradition it is told that a young girl found a human skull and took it home. She made a new cap, nicely embroidered, and put it on the skull, laughing merrily. The Skull joined in her laugh. Her mother heard them laugh, and, while her daughter was away, found the Skull. The whole family were greatly frightened, and agreed to desert the girl. She was sent to fetch fuel, and during this time they hastily packed their belong- ings and moved. The girl arrived just as they were ready to de- part. She contrived to seize the back rail of her father's sledge; but he struck her on the hands with a heavy mallet, so that she was compelled to let go her hold. The Skull, seeing her de- spondency, promised to go in search of its body, and returned in the shape of a stately young man, with a large herd.

There are several tales about men and women left alone in uninhabited places. A Chukchee tradition tells of two cousins with two wives each, who are the best seal-hunters of the village ; but they quarrel about a small seal that they cannot kill. T h e next day the seal lures them to the open sea, where they are

48.

49.

BOGORAS] THE: FOLKLORE OF NORTHEASTERN ASZA 665

caught by a storm and almost drowned. Finally, when the storm subsides, they land on a small, lonely island. One of the cousins, remembering the bitter words of his companion, takes away his canoe and leaves him on the island. Arriving home, he declares that his cousin is drowned, and takes his wives.

T h e Pitiful Being looks down with pity on the deserted man, and lets a whale drift to the shore. The man carves it with a pointed stick, then makes a knife from a piece of the bone, a lamp from a hollowed stone, and begins to kill reindeer and seals. The next summer his cousin returns to the island in order t o make sure that the man whom he deserted is dead. While he climbs the cliff t o inspect there some bleached seal-bones, the wronged man secures both his own canoe and that of his cousin and paddles off, leaving the traitor on the island. The latter is not pitied by the Pitiful Being, and soon dies a miserable death.

A young man despised by his neighbors, or, more often, a poor man wandering about in the world, receives from a supernatural source great shamanistic powers. A t the time of a ceremony he reaches a wealthy man's house. Asked to practise, he begins to sing. All kinds of large and small game, birds and beasts, come one by one and join in his singing and dancing. The house fills with water; and seals, white whales, and walrus swim around. The neighbors become so much frightened that they immediately flee to another land.8

A slave of the Raven wanders about with his sister after his master's death. H e catches and kills two young wolves, and cuts their skin into thin strips, out of which he makes seal nets. After a while he reaches the village of the wolves, who maintain that he has killed two members of their tribe, though he obstinately denies it.'

50.

51.

See p. 587.

Ibid., p. 95. Ibid., p. 99 (Kwotiath).

a Compare Boas, Imiia~zische Sagen, 319.

666 A MEKI CAN A N THKOPOL OGZS T [N. s., 4, 1902

52. I n a Yukaghir tale the Hare-boy kills his companion, the young Wolf, and, with his mother, consumes the Wolf’s flesh. The she-Wolf finds out that her son’s tracks end at the Hare’s house. She threatens to denounce him to the chief. Then the Hare constructs a large grass house. In the morning a number of beasts-Wolf, Bear, Elk, and Reindeer-come to the Hare’s house to hold court. He offers to feed them before the inquest, and invites them to enter. The door is locked and fire set to the house. All the animals are killed by smoke and fire.’ I n this tale the feasting-house appears again, though among the Yukaghir there is no trace of its use.

I n a Chukchee tale it is told that white reindeer and reindeer with gray back and white belly come down from heaven. The brown onesand those with brown back and gray belly come from underground.a

A bride brought from some country afar off is so fair that the bridegroom does not dare to let his neighbors see her. She is kept all the time in the inner room of the house. When, at the urgent request of some inquisitive men, she is shown to them at last, she causes them to die of carnal desire (literally, from the swinging of their buttocks). This incident occurs in several Chukchee tales. In one tale, the bride is brought from the star Vega, which is called “ Foremost Head ” ( Ydnot-Zdut) ; but the people do not believe it, and want to clear away their doubts by seeing the bride.a

A young man who is wandering about comes to a rich house, desiring to find a wife. He has to pass through a charmed door, which snaps at every visitor, trying to bite him ; but the young man jumps in so swiftly that it catches only a piece of his coat.‘

53.

54.

5 5 .

I Jochelson, Yzdkqhir MoleriaLs, p. 12. Compare Boas, Indianiscke Sngen, p. 53. Ibid., p. 40. Ibid., p. 118.


56. The Bear-Eared-One (KL:iiitl-dh), the son of a Black Bear who is famous for his strength, is visited by a rival, who proposes a match. They t ry to lift stones. While KCifiI-vClu lifts, without an effort, the visitor’s stone, the latter cannot lift KCifiI-velu’s stone and is vanquished.’

57. I n one very remarkable Koryak tale, a small hungry kdmak (identical with the K ~ Z E of the Chukchee) wants t o obtain some food from Kuykinnaku’s storehouse. H e is entangled in a snare, and caught. Kuykfnnaku proposes to transform him into some useful household object. T h e hhzak declines to become a skin stopper or a working-bag, but is contented to be a strong new sealskin line. T h e line is hung before the door, and people from the villages up and down the river t ry to steal it, but always fail, because the rope gives timely warning to its lawful owners. At last a man succeeds in stealing it. EmCmkut promises to restore it. H e makes a wooden whale, enters it, and starts for the village of the thief. The people of the village, on seeing the whale, give chase, and hit it with a harpoon t o which the stolen line-the kdmah--is attached. The k J m d lustily bites into EmCmkut’s flesh, but desists when reproved, and is carried home.*

I n a tale of the Russianized Yukaghir on the Kolyma, a man wandering about enters the house of a one-eyed woman, who wishes him to become her husband. He, however, hears the gnashing of teeth from beneath her skirts, and, upon lying down with her, he tries t o lull her to sleep. Then he finds that her vagina is set with large teeth, like a pike’s head. With his knife he cuts away the vagina, and finds under it another of usual shape. Finally he takes the woman home and makes her his slave. In America this tale is known along the North Pacific coast, in California,3 and, according to a verbal communication of

58.

Compare Boas, Zntr‘innische .Tagen, p. 191. Compare ibid., p. 359, W 130. ’ Boas, Zndinizische Sns<wz, pp. 24, 30, 66 ; Livingston Farrand, Traditions of thc

Chilcotin (Memoirs of American Museum of Natural History. vol. IV, p. 13); F. Boas, K w a k i d Tex t s (Memoirs of American Museum of Natural History, vol. v, p. 96) ; Dixon, Muiih Myths (Bulletin American Museum of Natural History, vol. XVII, p. 69).

668 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [N. S., 4, 1902

A. L. Kroeber and G. A. Dorsey, among the Arapaho. The Chukchee version resembles the American one still more closely. Here the man destroys the teeth with two large stones, and then copulates with the woman. The same detail is repeated in an Aino tale.’ I met with a somewhat similar tale in northern Russia, where a pretty girl is married to a slovenly young man, against her will. To cause his love to cease, the girl inserts in her vagina a dry pike’s head, the teeth of which severely prick the young man at his first approach ; at the same time the girl calls him a fool for not knowing that young girls’ vaginas usually have teeth. After a long interval he tells his misadventure to his mother, who vainly strives to undeceive him, and, in order to convince him, proves to him that her private parts have no teeth. Her son, however, assumes that the teeth have fallen out on account of her old age, and does not believe her. Perhaps this story, in common with many other stories of northern Russia, is of Finnish origin.’

59. I must mention here also the idea of the Indians that the telling of a certain tale is supposed to cause good weather.’

Another Indian tale finishes abruptly with a promise that the weather will be good the next day.’ Among the Chukchee and among the Eskimo long tales are supposed to stop wind and bad weather; and some tales end with almost the same words as the Kathlamet tales, - ‘L There now ! The idea probably sprang from the fact that the Chukchee and the Eskimo find much amusement in telling stories, and in stormy weather, they have, indeed, little else to do until the storm subsides.

H e desists, terrified.

I have killed the wind ! ”

Chamberlain, Aiwo Folk-Lore, “ Island of Women,” p. 38. See also Boas, Dissemination of Tides in florth America (Journal of American Folk-Lore, 1891, P. 96).

See p. 648. Boas. Indiunischc Sagen, p. 22.

4 Boas, Kafhhinret Texfs, p. 102.


IV.-CONCLUSION

I will now summarize the results of our comparisons. There is nothing to wonder a t that great resemblance exists between the traditions of the Chukchee and those of the Eskimo. From very ancient times both tribes were close neighbors and held most active intercourse. In Asia, moreover, there are Eskimo villages, which in former times, perhaps, extended on the arctic coast farther t o the west. T h e influence of Eskimo culture is great and striking on the Asiatic shore, and reappears even in the minutest details of various implements used for hunting, war, etc. Therefore the elements common t o the Chukchee and Eskimo traditions can be accounted for by borrowing, or by common origin, or, what seems most probable, may be due t o both causes.

T h e relations between the tribes of the west coast of Bering sea and the North Pacific Indians are more complicated, because, in their present geographic location there is no chance for any direct intercourse between the Chukchee and the Indians, and still less between the Kamchadale or the Yukaghir and the Indians. Nevertheless we find several stories with characteristic details that are common to those tribes of northeastern Asia and of northwestern America most remote from each other, while they are unknown t o intermediate tribes, such as the Chukchee and the Eskimo. W e must assume that t he cause of this peculiar distribution is the closer contact of these distant tribes in former times, or a kindred origin, or both, which, again, seems the most probable.

T h e Raven legend, the most important of all these myths, extends in one continuous line along the Asiatic and American shores; but close to Bering strait this line seems almost broken by the Eskimo. The Raven stories of the Alaskan Eskimo were probably borrowed from the Indians, or, a t least, conceived under Indian influence, like the totem marks and masks of these tribes.'

Compare Boas, Eskimo of Ba@n Land, pp. 368, 369.

670 AMERICAN ANTkIROPOLOGlST [N. S., 4, 1902

The importance of the Raven myth in Asia increases from the north to the south as far as Kainchatka; while in America, on the contrary, -excluding the Eskimo, - it gradually vanishes in the southerly direction.'

Thus we can follow the line of distribution of the Raven myth in Asia from Kamchatka toward East Cape, along the ancient road that Kutq chose for himself when he retired from the land of the Kamchadale.' Then, with a great bound across Bering strait, we find it again on the American shore, and can trace its way toward the south, where it gradually merges with alien folklore.

The question of the part the Eskimo played in the ethnologi- cal development of this area remains, on the whole, obscure, As stated before, their material influence was deep and varied on both shores; but in Alaska their religious and social customs were also deeply influenced by the Indians.

In Asia, whatever their geographic position on the Arctic shore may have been in former times, they certainly seem to be, comparatively speaking, new-comers on the Pacific shore. Their villages are few, and occupy only the extremities of some of the outlying capes, while the rest of the coast is held by the Chuk- chee and Koryak.

Possibly a connection existed on the Arctic shore between the Eskimo and Chukchee and the tribes farther to the west -the Yenissey Samoyeds, the Yenissey Ostiaks, and the European Samoyeds. On the coast of Bering sea, on the main line con- necting America and Asia, we may, perhaps, speak of an Eskimo wedge that came from the north and divided into two branches - a continuous line of tribes of kindred culture, or, at least, of kindred traditions- which included the Indians of the North Pacific coast, that part of the Chukchee who do not belong to the Eskimo stock, the Koryak, the Kamchadale, and the Yukaghir.

Boas, lndiaizisclre Sagen, p. 332. Compare p. 639.

BOGORAS] THE FOLKLOKE OF NOR THEASTERN ASIA 671

In Asia this stock of traditions may have traveled southward along the Pacific coast t o the chain of islands extending beyond Kamchatka, and some of these tales may have migrated to o r from America across Bering strait before the coming of the Eskimo into that part of Alaska and Siberia that they now occupy.

APPENDIX

Following is a list of traditions common t o the West Bering tribes and the American Eskimo. Whole tales are indicated by titles. Incidents are given in abstract. Cases of similarity which have no very characteristic details are indicated by an asterisk,

TRADITIONS OF THE CHUKCH*:.:E

The Woman and the Whale, p. 607.

The Boy and the man-eating K ~ E , p, 608.

The Bird-woman story, p. 61 I.

Five Girls and the K k l ~ , p. 613.

A Man visiting distant countries, p. 616.

Lolgil&n, the Giant, p. 617. Three Brothers and n blind

A Dog that married a Girl, p. Woman, p. 618.

618.

A mangy Orphan Boy," p. 619.

TRADITIONS OF THE ESKIMO

A tale about two Girls, Rink, op. cit., p. 126; Boas, Eskimoof BaBn Land, p. 318.

Origin of Fog, Boas, Eskimo of Bn-fin Land, p. '77. The Broth- ers visit their Sister, Rink, p. 130.

Ititaujang, Boas, Eskimo of B a j i n Ltznd, p. 179. The Man who mated with a Sea-fowl, Rink, p. 145. Story of the stolen Wife, Francis Barnum, p. 292.

Igimagajug, Boas, Eskimo of B a f i n Land, p. 312. The story o€ three Girls, ibid., p. 317.

Kunuk, the orphan boy, Rink, pp. 132-143; Tiggak, ibid., p. 165. Ak'-chik-chG'-gik, Nelson, p. 499.

Visit to the Giants, Rink, p. 430. Stories about Adlet, Boas, Es-

kimo of B a 8 n Land, p. 203.

The Woman who married the Dog, Boas, Eskimo of B a f i n Land, p. 166; Rink, p. 471.

Kagsaguk, Rink, p. 93. Qaud- jaqdjuq, Boas, Central Bskimo, p. 630.

A wandering Man and an old Woman, p. 621.

Children carried away by a

A Woman forsaken by her hus- Kdz, p. 623.

band, p. 624.

Wanderers, coming back to the village, find their infant children quite grown up,* p. 625.

Child-monster, p. 625. Magic flight, p. 626.

The episode of the drowning of the daughter of the KhL, in a tale of the Raven myth cycle, p. 627.

The origin of Thunder, p. 628.

The episode of the Raven calling to himself various kinds of animals; in a tale belonging to the Raven myth cycle, p. G29.

The episode of the Raven pro- curing the body of a dead pup for food.

The Reindeer and the Walrus, p. 630.

An old Woman who pretended to be a man, p. 630.

T w o wooden Wanderers, p. 631.

Kiviuq, Rink, p. 157; Boas, Cen- traC Eskimo, p. 623; Zskimo of B a B n Land, p. 185.

Mangegjatuakdju, Boas, Eskimo o f B a B n Land, p. 189.

Takuka, Nelson, p. 467. Kiv- iuq, Rink and Boas. (Killing of a woman with a peg driven into her ear.)

Kiviuq. (The hero on his return finds his infant son quite grown up.)

Child-monster, Rink, p. 258. Origin of Fog, Boas, Eskimo of

Raf in Land, p. 1 7 7 . The emigra- tion of the Sagdlirmiut, Boas, Cen- tral Eskimo, p. 619.

Sedna myth, Boas, Eskimo of Baf in Land, pp. 119, 163.

Origin of Thunder and Light- ning, Boas, Eskimo of Bafin Land, P- I 7 5

The Foxes, Boas, Zskimo of BaBn Land, p. 215.

The Raven and the Gull, Boas, Eskimo of B a f i n Land, p. 216.

The Bear and the Caribou, Boas, Eskimo of B a f i n Land, p.

An old Woman who transformed herself into a man, Boas, Eskimo of B a f i n Land, p. 248. The old Woman and her Grandchild, ibid., P. 324.

The Girl who fled to the Inland- ers, Rink, p. 219.

220 .

BOGOKAS] THE FOLh'LORE OF NORTHEASTERN ASIA 673

Tales of vanished tribes, p. 631.

The tradition about the people stealthily walking around," p. 632.

The Bear and the Woman, p.

Tips of ears and of noses of killed animals are supposed to transform themselves into whole skins or into living animals, p. 633.

633.

Stories about Tornit, Boas, Cen- tral Eskimo, 11. 634; Eskimo of Balpin Land, p. 209.

Kalopaling, Boas, Central7 Es- kimo, p . 620.

The Giant, Nelson, p. 471.

The same, Nelson, op. cit. (the Giant), p. 472.

WEST BERING TRIBES OTHEK T H A N

C H U K C H E E

The Boy and the KC'LE. RUS- sianized Yukaghir of the Kolyma, p. 610.

The episode of the Fox who takes some little Mice out of the bag and stuffs it with moss in their place; in one of the tales belonging to the Raven myth cycle. Kanichadale, Koryak, p. 615.

People without anuses. Rus- sianized Yukaghir of the Kolyma, p. 615 .

I n the same tale the episode of the Trunk of the Tree engaged in fishing, p. 616.

Three Sisters and the Child- monster.* Russianized Yukaghir of the Kolyma, p. 626.

The magic flight. Russianized Yukaghir and the Russians of the Kolyma and the Anadyr, p. 626.

The Foxes crowd into a house and are killed. Koryak, Yukaghir, p. 629.

AM. ANTH., N.S . . 4.-43

ESKIMO

The Brothers visit their Sister, Rink, p. 130.

Igimagajug, Boas, Eskimo o f Bnlpin Land, p. 3 I 2.

Origin of the Narwhal, Boas, Eskimo of Bifin Land, p. 170.

Episode of the Log catching Seals, in the tale of Kiviung, Boas, Ccnfral Eskimo, p. 623; Eskimo of Bafin Land, p. 135.

Child-monster, Rink, p. 258.

Origin of Fog, Boas, Erkinzo of Balpin Lana', p. 177.

The Foxes, Boas, Eskimo of Balpin Land, p. 215.

674 A ME RZCA N ANTHROPOLOGIST [N. S., 4, 19’32

The Raven-man and the Fox- woman. Koryak, p. 630.

The episode of Kutq’s wife cutting off her nose, lips, and cheeks; in one of the tales belonging to the Raven myth cycle. Kamcha- dale, p. 630.

The Owner of the Forest carries away a Boy.” Russianized Yukaghir of the Kolyma, p. 632.

The Bear and the Woman. Rus- sianized Yukaghir of the Kolyma,

The Giant Bird. Russianized P. 633.

Yukaghir of the Kolyma, p. 663.

The Man who married the Fox, Boas, Eskimo of Bafln Land, p. 225.

The Spider, Boas, Eskimo of B a f i n Land, p. 193. Kiviung, Boas, Central Eskimo, p. 624.

Kalopaling, Boas, CenfraZ Es- kimo, p. 620.

The Giant, Nelson, p. 471.

The last of the l’hunder-birds, Nelson, p. 436.

T h e traditions common to t h e West Bering tribes and t h e North Pacific Indians are as follows :

CHUKCHEE

Raven myth : The Creator and the Raven

make Men of clay and grass and endow them with language. The Raven overtakes a Monster-half- man, half-reindeer-and splits it in halves, p. 642.

The Raven Khrkrl creates Earth and Men with the aid of other birds, p. 640.

TheCreator makes Men of stone, but afterward restores them to their former condition, p. 643.

The Raven pierces the wall of Dawn with the aid of several other birds, p. 640.

The Raven steals three skin balls, containing light, from the house of the K(ca through the

INDIAN

Two transformers give to the Deer its present shape. They create Men and endow them with language. Nutka, Boas, Indianische Sugen, p. 98.

TheRaven Omeatl creates Earth and Men with the aid of other birds. Tlatlasik’oala, ibid., p. 173.

Yetl creates Men of stone, who, however, soon afterward die. Tlin- git, ibid., p. 319, 8 20.

The Raven requests Masmasa- ll’niq and others to tear the dark curtain between the earth and the heavens. Bilqula, ibid., p. 129.

The Raven Yetl undertakes to free the Daylight from the house of a mighty chief through the

BOGORAS] T H E FOLKLORE OF N O R T H E A S T E R N A S I A 675

instrumentality of the young daughter of the K ~ E , p. 643.

People living in darkness mistrust and mock the Raven, notwithstanding his promise to get the light, p. 644.

The wives of the Raven request him to show his tongue, then wind i t around with twine and deprive him of the power of speech, p. 644.

The Raven transforms himself into a leaf and drops into a pool; then he is carried by a girl in a bucket to the house of her father, but the latter, being a mighty shaman and a rival of the Raven, promptly discovers him in the water, p. 645.

The Raven is swallowed by a Whale, but kills thewhale by pecking at its heart and then comes out, p. 645.

The Raven urges wealthy traders to flee under the pretext that the enemy is coming, then takes away all their provisions and peltries, p. 645.

The Raven and the Fox, being neighbors, go in turn to kill reindeer and to catch fish. But the Fox is unable to make proper use of the assistance of supernatural beings, masters of game and fish, and returns without success, p. 651.

The Raven. pretending to cure the Owl of diarrhea, inserts hot stones into his anus, which burn his intestines, p. 655.

instrumentality of the chief’s daughter.

People catching fish in darkness mistrust and mock the Raven, notwithstanding his promise to get the light. Tlingit, ibid., p. 313.

T h e Raven requests the Cor- morant to show his tongue and then tears it out. Tlingit and other tribes, ibid., p. 330, 0 7 .

Tlingit, ibid., 3 I 2.

The Raven transforms himself into a leaf and drops into a pool. The girl. coming for water, dips him up with her bucket and swallows him when drinking. Then she is questioned by her father, who is a mighty chief, unfriendly to the Raven. Tlingit, ibid., p. 312.

The same. Tlingit and other tribes, ibid., p. 330.

‘The Raven urges the people of the village to flee under the pretext that the enemy is coming, then takes away all their provisions. Tlingit and other tribes, ibid., p. 330, 0 1 1 .

The Raven and a small Bird, being neighbors, go in turn to kill elks; but the Raven is unable to make proper use of the assistance of supernatural beings, so has no success. Nutka, ibid., p. 106.

T h e Raven kills the Hear and makes the Loon swallow a red-hot stone and afterward to drink water, so that her intestines get scalded, Tlingit, ibid., p. 317.

676 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGlST [N. s., 4, 1902

The Fox, pretending to cure the Bear of his wound, makes him swallow red-hot stones, which scald his intestines, p. 655.

The Raven is invited to cure a woman made ill through an evil charm. He sings and dances, but cannot find the charm. Then he sends for various animals and at last the Polar-bear discovers the charm, p. 655.

The Sun comes down to the earth and marries a girl, but afterward they are separated. The woman bears a son, who, after having learned to shoot with the bow, goes to seek his father and finds him by means of an arrow which he shoots across Pebble river (Milky Way), falling near the Sun's house, p. 657.

A boy ascends to the heavens by means of a needle which darts upward and sticks into the sky. The thread of the needle serves him as a ladder, p. 658.

The Beetle-woman, in punish- ment of her perfidy, is burned by her husband in a great fire. She inflicts the human race with various diseases, but her husband pushes her with a stick farther into the fire, until she becomes silent and dies. After her death mankind contracts the diseases,* p. 657.

Yaksenukomae is wounded by a Gray Bear. Shamans are invited to cure him ; they sing and dance around his bed, but to no avail. Then the Raven comes and cures him with the aid of the Dog and the Snail. Catlb'ltq, ibid., p. '78, 9.

Mink myth: The Mink Tot'k'oLya is the

Sun's son ; he lives with his mother in a village. Desiring to find his father, he shoots upward one arrow after another. The first arrow sticks into the heavens, the second into the shaft of the first, and so on. At last a line of arrows is formed, by means of which the Mink ascends to the heavens. Various tribes, ibid., p. 338, § I .

T'd, who is a bad She-cannibal, is pushed by some children with a stick into the fire. She cries: " Let me out, let me out ! " and is silent only after her death. Her ashes turn to mosquitoes. Cat- Id'ltq, ibid., p. 89.

BOGORAS] THE FOLKLOKE OF NORTHEASTEhW ASIA 677

The Supreme Being lets down a young man with his bride from the upper world to the earth. He uses for this purpose a spider’s web, which is able to support twenty reindeer - loads without snapping, p. 591.

Birds shoot with their wing- feathers, p. 612 .

Pi shaman, traveling among the worlds, stops to rest in the Land of Mice. H e is requested to help a woman who is suffering from pain in her throat, but discovers on her neck a noose of grass, such as children make for catching mice. H e destroys the noose, the Mouse-woman recovers, and he is paid for his services, p. 660.

A man points his penis at the nose of an old blind woman, p. 618.

A woman comes to the house of the Black Bear. H e marries her and they sleep the whole winter through, p. 661.

A charmed Reindeer - buck, standing on the bank of the river, kills all passers-by, p. 661.

Mktifio joins the herd of wild Reindeer and lives their life. Afterward he resumes the human form of life and becomes a great hunter, p. 662.

T h e Thunder-bird makes thunder and frightens the people, p. 644.

T h e Thunder-bird, when angry raises a violent storm which makes the earth tremble, p. 664.

The Sun-man lets down his daughter and her husband from the heavens to the earth. H e puts them in a basket, adds a lot of edible roots, and lets them down on a rope made by spiders. Lower Frazer river, ibid., p. 40.

The same. Catla’ltq, ibid., p. 89; Tsimshian, Boas, Tsinzshian Texts, p. 114.

Kwotiath comes to the Village of Sharks and is invited to cure a woman who is very ill. He discovers a spear sticking out of her body, which, however, is invisible to her household. H e pulls out the spear, the woman recovers, and he is paid for his services. Nutka and many other tribes, Boas, Itzdinnische Sugen, p. 356, 8 63.

A man touches with his penis the eyes of some old blind women and they recover their sight. Nutka, ibid., p. 118.

The same. Bella CooIa, Boas, Mythology of the Belln CooZa, p. 111.

A supernatural Elk, standing with his legs spread over the river, kills all passers - by. Shuswap, Boas, Indianische Sagen, p. 2 .

A Goat hunter joins the herd of Mountain-goats and lives their life. Afterward he resumes the human form of life and becomes a great hunter. Shuswap, ibid., p. 12.

The same. Tsimshian and other tribes, ibid., p. 355, 8 z g .

The Thunder-bird, when angry, raises a storm which carries away the house. Catlb‘ltq, ibid., p. 82.

678 A MERICA N ANTHROPOLOGIST [N. S., 4. 1902

Two men go to a lonely island. One of them paddles off, taking away both canoes and leaving his companion on the island, Coming home, he takes the wives of the forsaken man; but the latter is helped through a supernatural agency and finally comes back and punishes the trespasser, p. 664.

A young man, despised by his neighbors, receives shamanistic power through a supernatural agency. He comes to a wealthy man's house at the time of a ceremony and is requested to show his skill. He sings and dances. The house is filled with water. The neighbors become frightened and flee to another land, p. 665.

White reindeer are descending from heaven ; brown reindeer are coming up from underground," p. 666.

A bride brought from heaven is so fair that her beauty, when shown to the unbelieving neighbors, makes them die from carnal desire, p. 666.

Charmed door snaps at the visitor, p. 666.

A visitor wants to have a match with the Bear-eared man in lifting stones, but cannot lift his stone and is vanquished, p. 667.

The story of the woman whose vagina was armed with teeth, p. 668.

Small pieces of bodies of whales and seals are thrown into the water with the idea that they will

The Raven induces a man togo with him to a lonely island. The Raven paddles off in the boat, leaving the man behind, and, coming home, takes his wife. But the forsaken man is helped through a supernatural agency and finally comes back and punishes the Raven. Haida, ibid., p. 309.

Kate'mot receives shamanistic powers through a supernatural agency. He enters the singing house of the village and is asked to show his skill. He sings and dances. The house is filled with water and seals swim around. The neighbors become so frightened that they flee to another land. Eeksen, ibid., p. 95.

White reindeer are descending from heaven. Cowitchin (K'auet- cin), ibid., p. 53.

A bride brought from heaven is so fair that her beauty, when shown to the unbelieving neighbors, scorches the face of one man. Lower Frazer river, ibid., p. 40.

Nutka, ibid., p. IS. The same.

Gyii'lbyak'am& comes to have a match with WB'qaos in lifting stones, but cannot lift WB'qaos's stone and is vanquished. Tlat- lasik'oala, ibid., p. 19 1.

The same. Bella Coola, Kwak- iiitl, Lower Frazer river, Maidu, Arapaho, et al.

Bones of salmon are thrown into the water in order to transform them into living fishes.

BOGORAS] THE FOLKLORE OF NORTHEASTERN A S M 679

be transformed into living animals, p. 660.

Telling of tales kills tempests and brings back good weather, p. 668.

WEST BERING TRIBES O T H E R T H A N

C HUKC H E E

Mountains make love and fight. Yukaghir, p. 643.

The Raven Kutq steals fresh water from the Lobster AVVI. Kamchadale, p. 644.

The Raven enters the jaws of a dead whale and after its belly is ripped up he comes out. Koryak, P. 645.

The Raven and the Small Bird are rivals in a marriage-suit. The Raven acts foolishly and is vanquished by the Small Bird, who is very wise and is helped through supernatural agency. Koryak, p. 65 1.

The Raven Kuykf'nnaku snatches at a hook baited with meat and is caught. Straining with all his might, he snaps the line and carries off the hook, which sticks in his jaw. Koryak, p. 651.

The Fox takes out her eyes and pounds them with a stone, then she makes for herself instead eyes of blackberries and afterward of two small bits of clear ice. Koryak, p. 652.

Bilqula and other tribes, Boas, fndianische Sagen, p, 357, 8 68.

Telling of a special tale kills bad weather and makes the rain cease. Lower Frazer river, Kath- lamet, Boas, Indianische Sagen, p. 2 2 ; KathZarnet Texts, p. 102.

I N D I A N

Mountains fight. Bella Coola, Boas, MythoZogy of the BeZZa Coob, p. 2 8 .

The Raven steals fresh water from the Eagle K.anii'k. Tlingit and other tribes, Boas, Indianischc

The Raven is swallowed by a whale and kills the whale, When the whale's stomach is laid open, he flies out. Tlingit and other tribes, ibid., p. 330, 8 15 .

The Raven and the Small Bird are neighbors. The Raven acts foolishly in his encounter with supernatural beings, while the Small Bird is very wise and therefore successful. Nutka, ibid., p. 165.

The Raven Yet1 steals the bait from the fish-hooks of some fishing people. He holds on to the bottom of the boat, until his nose is broken off, when he is hauled to the surface. Tlingit and other tribes, ibid., p. 330, (j 8.

The Coyote takes out his eyes and flings them upward ; they are caught by a gull. He makes for himself other eyes of some berries. Shuswap, ibid., p. 7 .

Sagen, P. 3307 § 5.

680 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [N. s.. 4, 1902

A young girl is carried off by the Raven. Her brother follows and finds the house of the Raven, but he is afraid to enter. At last he succeeds in vanquishing the Raven and takes his sister back. Russianized Yukaghir of the Kol-

The Raven makes all his visitors go into a very hot sweat-room, where he kills them ; but the youngest brother of the slain contrives to push the Raven into the sweat-room and kills him. Rus- sianized Yukaghir, p. 653.

The Raven Kutq marries a Salmon-woman. I n his absence Mfti kills her and cooks her flesh. The Raven comes home and dines on the cooked salmon, but the Salmon-woman suddenly steps out of the dark storeroom, denounces Mfti, and departs for the sea, notwithstanding the entreaties of the Raven. Then the Raven's family starves again. Koryak, Kamcha- dale, p. 659.

yma, P. 653.

A She Giant carries awaychildren in a basket, but they succeed in making good their escape. Kor- yak, p. 623.

The tale of the she-monster, Yagishna. Russianized Chuvantzy, p. 623.

People pass over the river on the leg of a supernatural being, stretched across like a bridge. Yukaghir, p. 626.

Small pieces of bodies of whales and seals are thrown into the water

A young girl is carried off by a haven. Her brother follows and inds the house of the Raven, but ie is afraid to enter it. Then he :omes back and brings his neigh- iors along. They overcome the Zaven's family and take back the voman. 'I'simshian, ibid., p. 277 .

A visitor's endurance is tried with a hot sweat-bath, which is ieated more than usual for that iurpose. Chinook, Ponka, ibid., 1. 3 2 9 , 8 126.

The Raven or the Mink marries i Salmon-woman. The villagers ire starving. The Salmon-woman 'umbles among her teeth and then .hrows something into the water. [t proves to be a salmon, which is :ooked and serves as food for the 'amily. After a while the Salmon- woman, angered by some hasty words of her husband, departs for the sea, notwithstanding his entreaties, and the family starves again. Nutka, Newettee, Bilqula, etc., ibid., p. 332, 5 24.

A monster Woman does the same. Various tribes.

The tale of Sneneiq. Various tribes.

The same. Various tribes.

Bones of salmon are thrown into the water in order to trans-

BOGORAS] THE FOLKLORE OF NORTHEASTERN ASZA 68 I

A woman carried away by a whale.

A man simulates death and is carried away by a monster.

A man who marries a Bird-woman.

with the idea that they will be transformed into living animals. Koryak, Kamchadale, p. 660.

The tale of One-sided Man. Russianized Yukaghir, p. 662.

A woman comes to the house of the Black Bear, who marries her and they sleep the whole winter through. Yukaghir, Kamchadale, Lamut, p. 660.

T h e Hare-boy kills the young Wolf, his companion, and is denounced by the Wolf’s mother. H e contrives to escape retribution from all beasts friendly to the Wolf, who are called to a singing- house for a feast. Yukaghir, p. 666.

A magic line belonging to the family of Kuykfnnaku is stolen by neighbors and fastened to a harpoon. Emhkutassumestheshape of a whale, induces the villagers to harpoon him, and then carries off the line. Koryak, p. 667.

T h e story of the vagina armed with teeth. Yukaghir, p. 667.

West Bering tri6i.s

Chukchee Chukchee,

Chukchee, Yukaghir

Yukaghir

form them into living fishes, Bil- qula and other tribes, Boas, Inniirnische Sageti, p. 357, 8 68.

Kasg’na, the One-sided Man. Bilqula, ibid., p. 256.

The same. Bella Coola, Boas, Myth~log~v of the Bella Coola, p. 111.

Eskimo

K.2’iq kills the young Wolf A’c’icin and is denounced by an old woman. He contrives to escape retribution from the Wolf‘s neighbors, who are invited to a singing-house for a feast. Catlb’ltq, ibid., p. 76.

Bilqula, Tsim- shian, etc.

A man steals the harpoon of a fisherman, assuming the shape of a salmon and inducing the fisherman to harpoon him. Bilqula, Comox, etc., ibid., p. 359, 8 130.

The same. Various tribes.

TRADITIONS COMMON TO T H E WEST BERING

A N D T H E I N D I A N S ’

TRIBES. T H E ESKIMO,

Eskimo IVarious tribes

Eskimo Various tribes

The Raven tales of Alaskan Eskimo recorded by Nelson are not taken into con- sideration, as they are probably borrowed from Indians.

682 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST

A man with supernatural power gives to another man a self- moving canoe.

A man orders for himself several pairs of boots or mittens to be worn on a journey."

The log as a husband of women. The hero revives his companions

killed in a fighting match, after having killed their victors.

Magic flight. A dog marries a woman and has

children by her; they afterward assume human shape and finally become the ancestors of the tribe.

Excrement speaks and gives warning.

Artificial animals are sent to kill the enemy.

Birds of prey are caught by a boy, who lies down and simulates death, alluring them to perch on his body.

A suitor spurned by girls is made strong or handsome by supernatural agency; he is then sought by the same girls, but spurns them in turn.

Small pieces of whale's flippers or bones of fish, when put in water turn to living whales or fishes. Tips of ears of animals turn to whole skins or to living animals.

West Bering t r ibes

.__-

Chukchee

Chukchee, Russianized Yukaghir Yukaghir

Chukchee

Various

Chukchee

Chukchee

Chukchee

Chu kchee

Chukchee

Various

Eskimo

Eskimo

Eskimo

Eskimo

Eskimo

Eskimo

Eskimo

Eskimo

Eskimo

Eskimo

Eskimo

Eskimo

Indians

Kwakiutl, etc.

lTarious tribes

rlingit

jhuswap

Various tribes

Various tribes

Various tribes rsimshian,

Comox

rsimshian,etc.

Shuswap, Mic- mac

Various tribes

SUMMARY

Summing up t h e tales here tabulated, we find twenty-six of similar scope ' among t h e Chukchee and the Eskimo, laying aside t h e general similarity of t h e religious beliefs of these t w o tribes.

The cases of similarity among the Chukchee and the Indian Three of them with no very characteristic details.


number thirty-three.' These are consequently somewhat more numerous than the other cases; but the first group contains several tales that are identical, while the second consists chiefly of tales which display similar episodes only. On the whole both groups are perhaps of equal importance.

The cases of similarity between tales of the other West Bering tribes and those of the Eskimo number twelve.' Two of these are complex tales with several episodes.

'The cases of similarity between tales of other West Bering tribes and those of the Indians number eighteen, five of which are complex tales consisting of several episodes. On the whole the last group of tales exhibits far more striking analogies than the preceding one.

The number of similar tales found in the folklore of the Chuk- chee, the Eskimo, and the Indians is thirteen.'

The cases of similarity found in the folklore of the other West Bering tribes, the Eskimo, and the Indians are six in number'; five of these belong also to the Chukchee.

These comparisons strengthen the conclusion that, while Chuk- chee folklore is closely related to the folklore of both the Eskimo and the Indians, that of the other West Bering tribes shows comparatively much greater similarity with Indian than with Eskimo tradition.

Two of them with no very characteristic details. One of them with no very characteristic details.

THE FOLKLORE OF NORTHEASTERN ASIA, AS COMPARED ...

Documents

Transcript of THE FOLKLORE OF NORTHEASTERN ASIA, AS COMPARED ...